The Outsiders 2: In My Childrens's Eyes
by countrygirl21
Summary: We all know Johnny and Dally was taken too young, but what if they left more than just a memory behind? Years later, their daughters come back to Tulsa to find them gone. Past secrets come out but is anyone really ready for the truth about their friends?
1. Chapter 1

The Outsiders: In My Childrens's Eyes

_Prologue_

Sam looked up from the phone sandwiched between her shoulder and ear at the tapping sound her cousin, Jane was making on the phone booth. She waved her away and waited for someone to pick up the phone on the other end. She was about to hang up when she heard a man's voice on the other end.

"Hello? Is this a Buck Merril?" The man mumbled something undistinguishable before answering, sounded like he just rolled out of bed; at three o'clock in the afternoon no less. He cleared his whiskey-roughened voice, "No, Buck Merrill died about six years ago. I'm his son Ken Merrill, how can I help you?"

She worriedly bit her lip as she contemplated what to do next. "Well, maybe you can help me; did he ever mention a couple of guys by the name of Dallas Winston or Johnny Cade? They would have been teenagers when your dad ran the roadhouse." He was silent for a moment before answering, "I don't know much about my father's life in Tulsa. I know from around town that the Cade family moved away years ago and I remember Buck mentioning both Winston and Cade hanging out with the Curtis and Shepard gangs back in the day. Last, I heard the Curtis was stilling living in the area. Hold on, a sec."

She heard a couple of papers shuffling around before he answered, "Here we go, the oldest Curtis brother should still be living at the old house last I heard. He might be able to help you better than I can." She memorized the address he gave her and gave her thanks. She hung up the phone, leaned back against one side of the booth, and closed her eyes as she contemplated what they should do next. She opened her eyes at the sound of the door opening and seeing Jane opening it and tapping her foot impatiently. She threw her hands in the air, "Well? Are you going to tell me what he said or do I have to beat it out of you?"

She chuckled at the threat. If someone heard it, they would have laughed in Jane's face at the threat. Of course, that would get their ass kicked five different ways to Savannah and back. Jane barely stood at five foot and like her mother, was petite and delicate-looking; and had her temper. Looking at Jane you wouldn't think much of her; but that would be a big mistake on the other person's part since Jane was a highly trained martial arts instructor and a decorated cop for Savannah P.D. It wouldn't surprise Sam if Jane knew of every kind of martial arts there was.

And a couple not yet none about.

She went past her and ducked into Jane's mustang and reached for the pad and pen she always kept in the car and quickly wrote down the address while it was still fresh in her mind.

Jane got into the driver's seat and she in the passenger's, she sighed and told her what the guy told her. "Well, Janie. We got two options: we could stop now and go back to Savannah, or we head over to this Curtis guy's house and ask him if he knows where they are." Jane looked thoughtfully for a moment then looked over at the name and address given to her. Her frowned eased into a smile that light her face and dark eyes up. "Wait a minute, Darrel Curtis? Isn't he that guy our moms were always talking about? How he had an open door policy that Dad and Uncle Dallas took advantage of? I'll bet if their still friends he could tell us right off the bat were they are." She smiled at her cousin. The woman was smarter than she gave herself credit for. "Sounds like a good idea to me." She smiled over at the blonde and cranked the car taking it out of park. "Then it's settled. Next stop, Darry Curtis's house." With that, she pulled out of the parking lot and headed in the direction Sam gave her.

They drove threw the town and crossed a train track. As they drove threw this side of the town they saw most of the homes were older than the rest. Most of them were neat and the World War II style homes had been renovated in recent years. But some of them looked like they were about to collapse in on themselves and the grass in the yards was nothing but a memory. They parked the car at a empty lot and got out, Sam looked down at the notepad and together they looked at the mailboxes til they found the address they were looking for. It was an older home like most in this neighborhood but unlike some of them, it looked like it had been updated and recently painted. The grass was dead like most lawns were this time of year but judging by the winter flowers planted around the yard the home someone had taken time to plant and care for them.

And judging by the cars in the driveway and road by the fenced yard, it was a full house. Sam was shaking inside at the prospect of this visit, but weather it was excitement or nerves she wasn't sure. She glanced over at Jane and saw her glance back at her. She smiled up at her and took her hand, "I'm with ya, Sam. You're not alone on this. We both came here to see them." They both released a breath and opened the gate to the fence and walked up the path that led up to the front steps.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One

_January 2006_

Samantha Winston and Jane Cade stood on the porch of their fathers' friends' home. They looked at one another; they knew what the other one was thinking. This was the last address their moms had for their dads. Taking a deep breath for courage Sam rang the doorbell. She felt a moment of panic when she heard the commotion from the other side of the door; but it didn't really faze the two cousins. Nothing could bother them today. Today they were finally going to meet their dads. The legendary Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade.

A tall, muscular man answered the door. Though he must have been in his mid-forties, he still struck an impressive sight. This must be Darry Curtis. Their moms had described their fathers's older friend and this man fit the description to a tee. He frowned at Sam. She gave her best smile and spoke. "Hi, is this where Darrel Curtis lives?" His frown eased somewhat.

"Yeah, I'm Darry Curtis. Are you ladies lost?"

Jane came out from behind her tall cousin. The man paled when he saw her. It didn't surprise Sam; Aunt Val always said Jane was her dad made over. Jane spoke in her quiet drawl.

"We hope so. We're looking for Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade. We were told this was their last known address. Are they here?"

He just stood there staring at Jane as if he had seen a ghost. He seemed to shake himself from his trance and gestured for them to come in. The cousins took a hold of one another hands. Their moms were twin sisters and had had them within minutes of one another, and were more like sisters than cousins. They walked into the living room and saw the room was recently renovated.

The noise level dropped instantly when they stepped into the room. There were four older men sitting in various spots all over the living room and at the kitchen table and several kids varying from young teenagers to around their age. The older men looked at them-well, Jane more than her-like she was a ghost come back from the dead. Darry went over to the kitchen and spoke, "Guys, their looking for Dally and Johnny."

A tall man who could only be Darry's brother looked at Jane with shock in his gray-green eyes. He shook his head with a deep sadness in his eyes. "I'm sorry their not here." Sam's shoulders sagged slightly at his words but her smile didn't dim; but she couldn't stop the feeling of dread enter her mind. "Oh, well do you know were they are?" A good-looking older man stood up and walked over to them, studying them. Darry spoke. "Ladies, I'm sorry. Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade died several years ago."

Sam felt the blood leave her head, swayed, and felt Jane steady her. Jane held her tight, "We're very sorry, we didn't know. We'll be leaving now." As they started to the door, the man who looked at Jane with shock stopped them. "Wait, why do you want see them?"

Sam took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She had never reacted like that before, in her unit she was known for her cool nerves. She turned in time with Jane they both squared their shoulders and looked the older men square in the eye. "I'm Sam Winston and this is my cousin Jane Cade. We came here to see our dads. We never met them." They looked at them with shock in their eyes. Darry spoke, "You mean-" "Yes" they said in unison. "I'm Dallas Winston's daughter," she said in a clear voice. Jane spoke in her quiet voice. "And I'm Johnny Cade's daughter."

Ponyboy looked at the girl who could only be his best friend's daughter. She was Johnny made over. The girl who said she was Dally's daughter must have looked like her mother because the only thing he saw in her was Dally's pale blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. Except instead of being cold like her father's, hers were warm.

Sodapop stood there in utter shock, they all did. Dally and Johnny had daughters; though he couldn't see Dally in Sam other than the blonde hair and blue eyes, Jane was most definitely Johnny's child. She was a female version of Johnny; she even had a quiet voice and manner like Johnny.

The two women were there ten minutes at the most but made a lasting impression on them. Especially Darry and the guys. They might have seen Dallas with someone, but Johnny?

Pony shook his head later on that night as he climbed into bed next to his wife. He smiled at her sleeping face. He had been married to this wonderful woman since they were sixteen. He found it kind of ironic that while she had been pregnant with Peter, Johnny had a daughter approaching her first birthday. He shook his head as he pulled her into his arms and drifted off to sleep. Why, Pony had thought his friend would be interested in someone he didn't know; it never occurred to him that Johnny might have had a girlfriend.

Later that night after they left the Curtis house they stopped off and got something to eat at a little diner called the Dingo. Neither had much appetite and left leaving most of their meal behind.

Jane looked over at Sam as she drove to their motel. She hadn't said a word since they left the Curtis house; many a time she heard her Aunt Kate say Sam might look like her but she was her father's daughter. Wouldn't show emotion; always tried to be strong. To be tough. Little did Jane know that Sam was holding it together by a couple of threads.

She still was trying so hard to hold it all in when all she wanted to do was crawl under the covers and cry. Or, go back to Savannah and let her mother hold her as she cried for the father she missed so much growing up and now, would never know.

Sam left the motel bathroom in a cloud of steam and saw Jane was already asleep on her bed. She smiled shaking the excess water from her long wavy pale blond hair; she threw the towel on top of the sink and went to her own bed. She left the light on and took out her rarely used purse from her suitcase. She looked over at Jane to make sure she was still asleep and took out her romance book. It was a guilty secret she had; one that Jane would never let her live down after all those times pestering her about reading those 'smut' books as she called it. As she started to open the book, she saw her wallet wedged between her sunglasses and keys. She set the book down and flipped the snap seeing the photo sheets tucked inside it. She smiled at their last Christmas's family photo. Her twin brother looked so handsome in his suit, she remembered that day very well. Mom and Aunt Val had threatened to skin them if Jane and her didn't show up in something other than their uniforms or jeans and shirt. It was one of the few times either one of them had willingly wore a dress.

She smiled as she gazed upon her Aunt Brooke and adopted sister, Randi. Brooke and Randi Lewis had befriended them when they moved back to Savannah after being in New York since their births. She quietly laughed as she remembered Aunt Brooke threatened to hex Randi if she showed up in her jeans and Savannah PD shirt. Being a former Voodoo practitioner and converted Wiccan -Brooke could definitely deliver on the hex business. Randi showed up in a black dress that ended a couple of inches above her knee and black heels.

Her mother remarked she had never seen Randi in such a dress. She laughed and responded, "Your lucky I didn't get my original choice. That sucker was so short if I walked down the street or bent over I would have to arrest myself!"

Sam grinned at the memory; that was Randi ever the daring and certifiable little sister of their family. She remembered once the photographer snapped the picture her brother threatened to choke them all and be done with the as he called them, 'pain in my ass since they hit menopause, and you three hit fourteen!'

She shook her head. It was a lie of course; their mother and aunts hadn't reached menopause yet.

Poor Al.

He had grown up around six women and was lucky he wasn't certifiable from their shenigans.

She looked at the picture behind it and felt her smile fade at the picture of just her mother, brother and herself. The first time she saw it she thought it needed her dad standing beside her mom. She still did. She saw her hand start to shake and the picture became blurry. She blinked to bring the picture back into focus. She closed her eyes realizing her father would never have a family picture with them. With her.

She dropped the picture and dropped her face into her hands, silently sobbing for her Daddy.

The man she had always hoped against hope would someday find his way to her. She was trying not to wake Jane with her crying when she felt the bed dip beside her. She looked up and saw Janie had her family picture of her mom and her in her hand too. And she too, had tears rolling down her cheeks.

She felt ashamed of herself, here she was crying for a father she would never know and Janie was crying for the same reason.

Sam opened her arms and she went into them, they stayed that way for a long time. Crying on one another's shoulder as they dealt with founding out the father she dreamt of meeting since they were little was now never going to get the chance. They cried for the fathers they never knew and now would never know. They cried for them, men they had always called 'Daddy.'


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Two

The next morning Jane woke up to see she was still on Sam's bed. At first, she couldn't remember why she was over at Sam's apartment, then it all came rushing back to her in flurry of emotions. She wiped angrily at the tears in her eyes, crying wasn't going to bring her dad back. Nothing short of asking Aunt Brooke to do a séance, would. She got up slowly from the bed lest she wake Sam and walked over to the mirror over looking the sink. God, she looked awful. She couldn't remember the last time she looked this awful; well, she could but she preferred not to. Her shoulder-length black hair was standing up on end, she had bags under eyes, and they were red from crying all night.

She looked over her shoulder at her cousin-sister still sleeping. Sam had cried threw out the night just like her and had a fitful night's rest, but she would wake up and look beautiful. She had always envied Sam and Randi their model-like looks. Both women had the kind of beauty where all they had to do was run a comb threw their hair and go.

She did too, most days but today was not that day. She pinned her hair back, took her face wash out of her travel case on the sink, and washed her face. The cool water and tingly clean scent of her face soap awoke her and went a long way to refreshing her than another hot shower would. She grabbed up the towel beside her and dried her face. She looked at her face and saw her eyes clearly. Her mom once told her she must have her dad's cowlick or something because ever since she could grow hair her bangs hung in her eyes and nearly hid them like his did.

But today was the first time she really looked at her eyes, her whole face really. She had seen pictures of her father when she was growing up and she knew she had a feminine version of his face.

But with her hair pulled back and her naturally tanned face a bit paler than usual, she saw some of her mother in her face as well. She had her smile and teeth and her high cheekbones handed down from her Cherokee great-grandmother. She shook her self from her reverie, set the towel aside, and shook her hair free of the rubber band after applying a light cover of makeup.

She brushed it out til it shown like black silk around her face and shoulders. Though her hair was straight it rarely stayed pinned back due to the wildness of her hair; she chuckled at her mother often saying it had a mind of its own. When she was a little girl her mother had a devil of time keeping it in it's ponytail or braid. Even when she would hose her hair down with hairspray would it stay in place. She went over to her suitcase and pulled out a pair of blue jeans and her favorite black silk Chinese style shirt. The collar and cap sleeves were sheer wisps of silk and held the intricate buttons near the collar. She dug a little further in the suitcase and found her black bra and black high-heeled boots. She felt like dressing up a little today.

She rolled her eyes at that; she had been wearing a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers too long. She brought the clothes over to the bed and started to change when she saw the pale blonde hair wave around her cousin's face.

Sam rarely took the time or want to wear her long wavy pale blonde hair. She usually pulled it up in a braid or ponytail. She saw Sam roll over in her sleep and it broke her out of her thoughts to realize she stood there wearing nothing but her panties. She shivered at the cool air in the room and quickly dressed. She was zipping up her three-inch high-heeled boots when Sam finally woke up.

She looked over at her sleepily and groaned when she saw the clock on the nightstand. Six-thirty in the morning! She wasn't one to sleep late but she was useless before eight in the morning. She didn't know how Jane could get up this early, and look that good! She had a dressy black top and blue jeans on and her high-heel boots. She didn't look like she was wearing any makeup but lipstick and mascara; she couldn't even tell she had been crying. Til she looked up and she saw the sadness in her dark eyes. Neither had to voice that the other one knew how she felt.

She silently got up from the bed and pulled a pair of jeans and long-sleeve black shirt from her suitcase. She quickly shed her pajamas and pulled the clothes on and her black boots. She went over to the sink and retrieved the travel case holding her brush and rubber band. Jane went over to the table and chairs in the corner of the motel room. Sam heaved a sigh and looked her sister in the eye. "Jane, what are we going to do? Do we go back home or stay here?" She paused in the act pulling on her blazer jean jacket. She looked up into the mirror and caught Sam looking back at her. It was one of the very few times she had ever seen her looking lost and scared.

She took a deep breath to give her a moment to think about how she would answer. But she knew this would be one of the few times she would do what she would with or without Sam going with her. She sighed and went over to the sink and leaned against them. She looked at her for a moment before she answered, "I don't know about you Sam, but I'm staying here and found out all I can about Dad. We can stay and found out about our dads or we can go our separate ways." She didn't look surprised by her answer, in the last year they had went threw things that made them realize that if they were to survive life at all; they had to stand on their on. They had to stand alone if the other one was left behind.

She nodded and went back to brushing her hair. She was pulling it in a rubber band when they heard a knock at the door. She nodded over to Jane and she silently pulled her gun from its holster in her purse and stood behind the door while Sam walked over to answer the door. She looked out the peephole and saw it was one of the older men from the Curtis house. He must have been related to Darry Curtis because he favored him some in the face. She opened the door and saw a tall man with light brown hair and grayish-green eyes standing at the door. He stood there silently for a moment before he spoke, "I don't believe we were introduced yesterday. Hi, I'm Ponyboy Curtis."

He held out his hand to her, she numbly shook it. She remembered her mother telling her about the Tulsa gang her dad and uncle hung out with in the past. She remembered him being mentioned, one didn't forget a name like that. Before she could make a sound, she heard a squeaking sound from behind her and turned slightly to see Jane come out from behind the door with her gun at her side. He looked at her warily. She heaved an annoyed sigh. "Jane, put the gun up. And your knives," She added as an afterthought.

She turned back and smiled apologetically, "Your right we weren't properly introduced, I'm Sam Winston. And the crazy woman with the gun over there is Jane Cade. You'll have to excuse her, she just got done with an intense assignment and still operating on adrenaline." He looked over her at Jane who was holstering her gun with surprise. "You're a cop?"

She nodded.

"I was promoted four months ago."

She grinned then and put her hand out, "Your right, Mr. Curtis we weren't properly introduced. As my lovable, but irritating cousin said, I'm Jane Cade and I'm guessing that you're the Ponyboy my mother talked about when I asked her about dad." He looked surprised about that. He saw that the sun was up and shining threw the trees and turned back to them to ask if they would like to eat breakfast with them. But apparently, they had the same idea, "Mr. Curtis we were just going to get us some breakfast would you like to come with us?" He looked surprised at their request but his surprised expression faded into a grin. "That sounds nice, ladies and please call me Pony. But I was going to see if you would like to join us instead." The two women looked at one another then back at him. "Us?" they said in union. "Yeah, every Saturday morning the guys and me get together and fix breakfast like we did when we were kids."

By then they had left the room and were entering the parking lot. He was headed to a blue truck when they headed to Jane's mustang. Sam was about to move to the driver's side. Jane yanked her away by her shirt collar and pointed her finger at her, "Hands off, the Mustang, Winston. The last time I let your drive it, my poor baby nearly ended up in a junkyard!" She rolled her eyes dramatically and walked over to the passenger side, pouting. Jane spread her arms out to 'hug' the car and kissed the roof, "It's okay, sweetheart, mama's not going to let the crazy lady drive you again." Pony looked at her oddly. Sam laughed at her antics and explained to him, "Jane's uh...a bit attached to her mustang. A couple of car jackers tried to take it one time, they limped home." He laughed at that. She might look like his old friend, but she for sure didn't act like him.

They followed him to a house a couple of blocks away from Darry Curtis's home. They pulled in behind his truck, got out, and walked up to the porch. The house was like Darry's; it was a older home that had been repaired and repainted. Only instead of winter flowers in the yard, there was an old swing set and old tires converted into planters if the plants were any indication.

They stepped inside the house behind Ponyboy and walked to the kitchen were the same men from yesterday. Most were standing around the fridge and stove so they didn't see them at first. Pony cleared his throat and caught the men's attention. "Boys, I hope you don't mind me bringing a couple of extras with me." He gestured to them and they came out from behind him. Once again, the room went silent, the only sound in the room was the bacon sizzling forgotten on the stovetop. They all stood still til the bacon started smoking.

"Damn! Meg's gonna kill me for burning another skillet!" exclaimed one of the men. He was tall with curly dark hair and apparently, the owner of the house they were in. Sam stepped forward and handed him the salt to put on the fire trying to start. He poured the shaker til the skillet was literally white with the salt he poured in it. Jane giggled remembering the last time Sam attempted to put on a grease fire while cooking. She full out laughed at the memory; the men all looked at her funny. Sam looked at her like she normally did; like she was off her rocker. She took a breath before talking, "Mister, it's a good thing you didn't let Sam put that grease fire out. The last time she attempted to put one out she nearly burnt her apartment down!" They chuckled at that while Sam blushed while glaring at her. "It wasn't my fault, I had just got a gas stove and wasn't used to it yet." She grinned at her and put her hands on her hips, "You tried to put the fire out with a bottle of wine that was sitting on the counter." Darry choked on his cup of coffee, a man with rusty-colored hair patted him roughly on the back. He put the cup down and choked between laughs while the rest were flat out laughing at Sam's expense. She took a threatening step toward her, eyes flashing icy-blue. The men quieted when they saw the look on her face that was much like Dallas when he was angry. Jane simply quirked an eyebrow at her larger cousin and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I don't think so, Blue. I could kick your ass five different ways to Saturday before I joined the force and I for damn sure can now."

She growled at her smaller cousin with mock anger. "You win this round, Cade."

She smiled at her with mock sweetness, "Bring it on, Winston. I can whup ya, and still have time for breakfast." They realized then they had a audience to their little show. They looked over at the table were they were sitting, gaping at them. Sam's guess was their fathers didn't do that. She shrugged and gave a nervous grin, "I take it Dad and Uncle Johnny never did that, huh?" They simply shook their heads. The really handsome man from yesterday cleared his throat and spoke, "Maybe we should let ya know who is who. You already know Darry, I'm Sodapop Curtis but you can call me Soda. The little knuckle head you came in with is our little brother Ponyboy." They simply quirked an eyebrow at 'little' when he talked about Pony. The man had to be at least 6'3" and had to be every bit as muscular as their brother was. The man with rusty-colored hair laughed, "I'll be not in my company three minutes and already imitating me." They cocked their heads at him. He grinned at them and stuck out his hand, "I'm Two-Bit Mathews. Over there griping about the skillet is our buddy Steve Randle. You ladies will have to excuse us for yesterday. You surprised so we forgot our manners."

They smiled graciously at them. Sam took a seat at the table after one was offered up. "We'll accept it if you let us in on that wonderful breakfast you're cookin up." They smiled at that and a couple of minutes later they were all sitting down at the table when Soda smacked his forehead with his hand and jumped from his seat and went over to the fridge and brought out the biggest chocolate cake Sam had ever seen outside of a bakery. She hid the chuckle behind her napkin at Jane's expression. Her eyes lit up like a little kid's. "Ya'll still eat chocolate cake for breakfast, I see?" All five nodded their heads enthusiastically. Jane hid a small sigh at the masterpiece called a cake behind her cup of coffee. She shook her napkin out and set it in her lap and grinned at the men around the table, "You know, I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship."

They laughed at that and the expression on her face as she eyed that cake. Sam moaned between bites at her sister's turn of phrase. She shook her head and laughed, "Go ahead and admit it, Jane. Stand up and say, 'my name is Jane and I'm a chocoholic.'" The three Curtis brothers looked up at and said, "And what's wrong with that," in union.

She held her hands up in surrender. "Nothing, but I have to deal with this woman all day today. When she has chocolate, she brings on a whole new meaning to the term 'bouncing off the walls.'" She rolled her eyes at that. "I am not that bad. Besides, the last cake wasn't all my fault. Randi should have specified how many cups of sugar to use in that recipe. Is it my fault I put six cups of sugar in it instead of two and went into a sugar rush?" She choked on her bite of eggs at that. She felt a big hand pat her roughly on the back as she took a sip of her coffee. She nodded her head, "I'm okay, thanks. It's just that when Jane says sugar rush, she obviously forgot the night she made it. It was when Aunt Val had first opened her restaurant and," She giggled at the memory.

"Oh, My God, I think that was the only time I ever saw Aunt Val mad at Jane. I think if Al hadn't intervened when he did Aunt Val would have chased her all the way to the Mason-Dixon Line with that iron skillet!" Jane busted out laughing, glad she could laugh about it now. That night her mother had put the fear of God in her when she chased her with that iron skillet that was almost as big as she was.

She shrugged and continued to talk, "I tried to blame it all on Randi, but it didn't work. I tried to tell her I don't bake. I can do anything but bake, but did she listen to me? No, just said any idiot could make it." She rolled her eyes good naturedly as she ate her slice of cake, "Well, this idiot couldn't. But my cake did fare better than Sam and Al's cakes. Not even the dogs would eat them!"

Breakfast was threw and they offered to help clean up the kitchen. While they cleaned up the kitchen, the sisters were going over in their minds what they would do now. They moved into the living room and sat down on any available spots in the room. Awkward silence filled the room til Two-Bit told a funny joke. The laughter broke the ice and Jane spoke up, "So you guys grew up with Dad and Uncle Dallas? Could you tell us alittle about them?" They were all so quiet Jane at first thought they didn't understand what she meant. Sam was about to speak when Steve spoke, "We get what your saying, its just odd to hear Johnny and Dallas referred to as 'Dad' and 'Uncle Dallas'."

The other men nodded their heads in agreement. Steve went over to the mantel over the fireplace and brought down a photo album that had seen better days. He gestured for them to sit next to him and they sat down next to him on the floor. On the first page was a black and white picture of a group of boys. On closer inspection, they say it was the gang. Standing there off to the side was Dallas with his arm slung around Johnny's shoulder. Both had seen a picture similar in their family album their mothers made after they were born. Jane pulled her purse from behind her and pulled out the small photo album they had put together of themselves growing up.

They thought it would be nice to compare them. Sam took the album from Jane's hand and opened it to the first page. It was a faded colored photo of her parents when they were teenagers. Dad was holding her mother by the waist and her head was tucked under his chin. Both were smiling at the camera, letting her know either it was Aunt Val or Uncle Johnny was the one taking the picture. She looked up from the picture and saw they were crowded around them to see the albums. One of them made a surprised sound, "That's Kate Miller!" Soda looked at her with surprise; he saw her now. Sam was a blonde blue-eyed version of Kate.

Her and her twin sister moved in with their grandmother after their parents died. There had been a rumor that the old woman was a witch, but he never knew if it was true. He looked at the picture below it and saw it was a picture of Johnny and the girl he recognized as Val Miller; Kate's twin sister. He looked at it closer and saw a lot of Johnny and Val in Jane's face. In the picture, Val's head was resting on Johnny's chest and he had his arms wrapped protectively around her. Pony's eyes widened to saucers when he saw that picture. He looked at Jane with amazement.

"That's just unreal. I knew that kid since we were in diapers and I never knew he and Val were dating." She nodded her understanding her eyes turning sad, when she spoke her voice held traces of sadness and anger, "That was Mr. Cade's doing. When they first started dating, he found out that mom and Aunt Kate were half-Indian; he told him to break it off. Said she was nothing but a dirty squaw after him for sex and would cut his throat the second she had a better offer. Mom said he beat him with a two by four to get his point across. They kept it a secret after that."

They looked at them stunned; they remembered the beating with the two by four but they had no idea it was because of him dating someone. Sam spoke with the same anger in her voice, "Mom knew it since she would help them sneak out at night. Dad only knew about it because he caught them sneaking out one night, Granny knew about it and tried to get them to either break it off or bring it out in the open. Mom said it wasn't until he came over one day with a black eye and busted lip did she realize it was safer they kept it a secret."

It was silent for a moment with the only sound was the pages being turned. It was Jane who broke the silence in her quiet drawl, "When did they die? How did it happen?" No one moved when she asked that question at first she thought they didn't hear her. She was about to repeat herself when Pony spoke, he looked at her with tears shimmering in his eyes.

"They died September 28, 1981. About twenty minutes apart from one another. Johnny died from complications from his burns. Dallas was gunned down by the cops after he robbed a store."

Both went pale at those words. Darry saw they both went so pale he started to reach for one when Jane jumped up and started pacing, mumbling under her breath. Sam sat there, shaken at those words. She looked at them; her eyes were so wide they nearly took up her face. "Wh-what time did they die that night?"

Soda looked at them puzzled, "Johnny died about 11:15 and Dal about 11:35. Why?" Jane stopped pacing at those words. She looked at him her eyes large and fear-filled. Much like Johnny's would be, it made Pony shudder seeing such a look like Johnny's on her face. Sam cleared her throat but was so quiet they nearly couldn't understand her.

"Jane and I were born at 11:15 on September 28, 1981. My twin brother, Al was born at 11:35 the same night." The gang went quiet when they realized what that meant.

Pony was shaking inside at the revelation. Just as Johnny was drawing his last breath, his daughter was breathing her first. They continued to look over the albums for another hour, trading stories. Sam and Jane telling them about growing up their first eleven years in New York then the last fourteen years growing up in their mothers's hometown of Savannah. The gang telling them about what Johnny and Dally were like as kids and Dally's stories about the mean streets of New York.

They found out Dally's New York was only slightly different from their New York. It wasn't until they came across a picture of Jane in police officer's uniform that they stopped talking and joking around. All five men sat there just staring at that picture, unsure they were seeing it right. It was Steve who broke the silence. "You're a cop?!" She smiled and nodded she stuck her hand to him, "Lieutenant Jane Cade of Savannah PD at your service, sir." He dumbly shook it and looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time. The silence was broke when Two-Bit threw his head back and roared with laughter. Both women frowned at him and cocked their heads at him. It took him a couple of minutes to regain control before he spoke.

He grinned and said laughingly, "Sorry, girls. It just that Jane is-" he started chuckling.

"Its funny when you think about. Jane, your old man was terrified of the cops and-" He started laughing again. "-And here his kid is a cop!" They all chuckled at that. Jane had to admit it was ironic that her father had been afraid of cops and here she had been a cop since her nineteenth birthday. She grinned evilly at them, "Yeah, well what til you see the next page of the album. It's a picture of me and my partner after we solved our first big case and made Detective." Darry reached down and turned the album's page that was sitting in Steve's lap. Someone's laughter was cut short by a choking sound. Sam looked up and saw Soda and Pony were looking at them like they just told them the world was square and they had proof. She looked at the page and smiled. That had been a great day that day.

Darry looked at the picture with wide eyes. In the picture was Jane and her partner since they joined the force together. Both women wore dresses in celebration of the day. Jane had on a knee-length red dress and heels smiling at the camera, one arm was slung around her partner's shoulders while the other one held up a shield signifying she was a detective. The other woman was tall with long wavy blonde hair. She wore a calf-length black dress and was also smiling into the camera with a pose similar to Jane's. Her pale blue eyes smiling back at the camera. It was Sam.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or the character Brianna Curtis. They belong to S.E. Hinton and Greaserfreak, respectively.

Chapter Three

It was nine-thirty that night before Jane and Sam left Steve's house and in that time they met Steve's son, Mike along with Mike's long-time girlfriend and business partner, Bri. Who ironically was Soda's oldest daughter. Sam's thoughts were broken into by Jane's voice, "Heads-up, Jag at four o'clock. You don't have your gun with you do you?"

Her voice was calm and emotionless as always when she sensed something was fixing to go down. Sam shook her head; she foolishly left it in the room back at the motel. She saw Jane's hand go to her side and stop; she didn't speak but Sam knew she was swearing silently in her head; both thought it would make a better impression to go without being armed to the teeth as Jane insisted she did as she normally did. Which meant Jane wasn't going to be living up to the force's nickname for her, 'G.I. Jane.'

She started walking backwards and started laughing, "Hey, Callie, I bet ya I can run faster than you can?" Sam smiled and started laughing with her; she knew what she was planning: they memorized the area the first time they came down this way, they would cut threw the park and circle back to Steve's house and get the car.

"You wish, Vally! I could run circles around you! If I win, you buy me a bottle of tequila and you win, I buy you a bottle of Jack Daniels!" She nodded, "You're on, Cal!" She gave her a subtle nod and they took off running at a dead run.

Steve Randle looked around his living room and thought back to today's events. The guys were still here; today brought back a lot of memories for them. They thought a lot about of their friends Johnny and Dallas. But today it was brought more to the front than ever before; not since they died at least. Pony was the one to break the silence. While it had been hard on them all to lose two friends that had been like brothers to them, it was even harder on Pony. Pony and Dallas had been there when Johnny had drawn his last breath and it was Pony's name that Dallas whispered with his dying breath.

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, "It was good to talk about them today. I forgot about that time me and Johnny snuck into the movies to watch that horror movie." He laughed, "Man, we had nightmares for a week after that movie; should have listened to Ma when she said it would scare the socks off us!" They all laughed, for the first time in years talk about the friends and parents they all considered their 'Mom and Dad'- and not feel the deep sadness they had all felt for the friends and parents they lost so suddenly and without warning.

Their laughter was interrupted by the door slamming open and Bri and Mike coming in laughing and talking with most of the older kids coming in after them. It wasn't until the last kid come threw the door they all heard it.

A scream; a female scream.

Steve's head shot up and he met his friends's gazes and saw they were thinking the same thing. That sounded like Jane. The older men barreled past the kids, tearing out the door at full speed with all the kids behind them.

The Socs jumped on her like she was bone to a pack of hungry dogs. Two of them held down her arms and started to tear at her clothes and she froze for a moment remembering the time in New York…

NO!

She put a lock on those thoughts and saw they had Jane down on the ground as well. She felt her rage take a new turn at the thought of someone hurting her beloved cousin. Jane looked at her with fear in her eyes, but with a gleam in her eyes. Sam secretly smiled; it was an old trick they had done before. It was risky with this many guys but it would be a cold day in hell when Sam Winston let someone get the best of her. Both were trained in different martial arts and excelled in different areas than the other one.

Sam nodded; giving her the signal.

Jane let loose a screeching scream without warning and the man on top of her let go of her arms to cover her mouth. It was all the opening she needed. She slammed her fists onto his head, he slummed to the side she kicked hard at the men at her legs, and she back flipped out of their reach. Sam followed suit and stood back to back with her.

They looked at one another and nodded. This wasn't the first time they teamed up in a fight and were pretty good at gauging the other's next move. One started at Jane and she kicked and whirled away as he started to grab her. A guy lunged at Sam and she grabbed his arm and threw him over her head; effectively knocking the breath out of him as he landed hard on the ground. She ducked and knocked the feet out of the next guy. She felt the breath leave her as a heavy body slammed her to the ground. She struggled as he snatched her up and pinned her to the tree behind her. At five-nine, she wasn't easy to throw around; especially when she joined the force and lifted weights to stay in shape; but this guy was powerfully strong. She saw the sneer on his face as he squeezed her throat tighter. "I'm gonna kill ya, Greaser Bitch."

She growled low in her throat at the insult. She kneed him in the groin and butted heads with him before he stumbled back from her. "When hell freezes over, Jerk-Off." He lunged at her; she grabbed his arm and slammed down hard with her elbow and slamming her palm into his nose, hearing bones crunch and his bellow of pain. One of them drew a knife and threw it. Lightning fast she grabbed the knife and threw it back at him, slicing his shirtsleeve and landing in the tree trunk behind him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the guys Jane knocked down start to take something from his jacket, saw the glint of metal reflect off a streetlight, and knew instinctively was a gun. Without a second thought, she dropped the guy she was fighting and raced over to her. "Jane!"

"Jane!"

She looked up just in time to see the guy pull the gun out of his jacket and aim at her. For the first time in a long time, she froze up and felt her opponent sock her in the jaw. She fell just as the gun went off, and then there was darkness.

Sam felt her heart fall into her stomach at the gunshot and her cousin fall to the ground. She screamed as she tackled the guy to the ground and wrestled for the gun, she heard the gun fire but she all she could think about was seeing her cousin falling to the ground; possibly wounded. She wrestled the gun away and started hitting him with her fists. She continued to hit the downed man until she felt a pair of strong arms pull her off him. She started to pull away but found he wouldn't let her go, she started to fight him but quickly found out it was like beating herself against a tree. She heard the sirens in the distance coming closer.

"Freeze! This is the police! Hands up in the air!"

Ponyboy and the rest of the gang ran to the vacant lot. All the while he ran he felt like history was repeating itself. Only instead of Johnny dead in the hospital and Dally being gunned down by the cops it was their kids. He and his son, Peter where the first ones to reach the lot and saw cops surrounding the area. They saw a man in fatigues was holding a kicking and squirming Sam and several guys lying on the ground. There was no sign of Jane. A couple of cops came forward and handcuffed Sam and the man holding her. She looked around frantically, started to stand up, and was forcefully pushed back down. "Jane. Where's Jane? Janie!" The cop frowned at her, "Whose Jane?" She looked around and spotted her underneath a tree. "She's over there. Jane. Jane Cade; she's my cousin. Please call a bus one of the guys that jumped us pulled a gun and fired it at her. I don't know if he shot her but I saw her hit the ground right as the gun fired." She started to move to the fallen woman once more. Peter stepped forward, "Officer, I'm paramedic I can take a look at her." The man looked indecisive for a moment then gestured for him to go to her.

He jogged to the fallen woman's side. He checked her pulse and found it was steady;

No bullets wounds that he could see. Judging by the huge bruise forming on her jaw, he would say the blow knocked her out and she started to fall from the blow just as the gun was fired. He got a good look at the unconscious woman and saw a lot of Johnny Cade in her. He had seen a picture of his father's old friend and saw she was most definitely his daughter. Just like there was no denying, he was Ponyboy's son. He felt her head, limbs, and found no broken bones or serious cuts. He gingerly picked up the petite woman and walked toward the cops. He saw she had cuts and scrapes on her hands and knuckles and would more than likely have bruises in the morning. She was incredibly light in his arms, and it wasn't until the street light bathed her in its soft glow he saw her blouse was torn nearly from her upper body and her jeans were torn in several places.

He glanced back at the men unconscious and coming to and realized what had happened. The Socs could be sorry bastards when they chose to be. He walked to the nearest cop who was an old friend and leaned in close to him so the others wouldn't hear him. "Looks like we might need that bus after all. She's got a nasty bruise on her jaw and cuts on her hands and knuckles." Jim glanced at him and looked at the woman in his old friend's arms. "Jim, we might want to get both of these women in for a rape kit. This one looks like they nearly ripped her clothes off and the one over there," gesturing to Sam. "Looks like someone started to choke her; I saw the beginning of finger-like bruises around her neck." The cop that had handcuffed the pair dragged them both up by their arms and led them to the cars. She stood firm. "They attacked us and we defended ourselves. They attacked cops for Pete's sake! You guys aren't going to do anything about it!" The cop sneered at her and she tore from his grasp and gestured at her back pocket. "You don't believe me? Check my back pocket, you can check Jane's too. Left pocket." The cop reluctantly took the wallet out of her back pocket and flipped it open. The flash of the badge was stunning for the whole group-greasers and cops alike. His shocked expression would have amused Sam at any other time. He let loose a low whistle.

"Well I'll be damned! Detective Samantha Winston, Savannah Georgia Police. Cold Cases."

One of the older cops gave her a hard look.

"Winston? As in Dallas Winston."

She nodded; the cops couldn't help but notice the sad look in her eyes at the mention of the dead hood.

"My late father. I came back here to his last known address and found out yesterday he died before I was born. And yes before you ask it- Jane is Johnny Cade's daughter. We came back here to see about our fathers, but found out they died before we were born. Ironically, they died the day we were born."

After talking with the police and a quick trip to the hospital, Peter brought an exhausted and barely conscious Jane into his uncle's spare room. The ER doctor would only release her if someone was watching her through the night and since Sam was going to be at the station for the rest of the night answering questions, they offered to keep an eye on her. He laid her down on his bed and adjusted the pillow underneath her head. He shook his head and brushed a stray hair from her face; feeling the soft skin there. If Johnny Cade was any thing like his daughter, he could see why Dally and the rest of the gang were so determined to protect him. He felt an almost overwhelming urge to take her back into his arms and hold her, protecting her from the world.

But judging how she fought five guys and her barely reached the five-foot mark; he would say she could take care of herself.

And judging by how protective Sam Winston was of her he would say it was like Dally and Johnny all over again.

He made his way back downstairs and saw his friends, cousins, and sisters sitting in various spots all over the living room. He saw no sign of his father or uncles so he assumed they went to his dad's house since it could easily house them all. After his second best-seller sold three million copies he build a house big enough for all the greasers and their kids could stay the night and not have to always sleep on the couch or the floor. His younger sister named after their mother Wendy looked up at his footsteps as well as the rest of the kids. With the exception of his cousin Brianna and friend Mike, he was the oldest one of the group. Until now.

Brianna smiled at him and patted the couch beside her. He grinned and sat down. Wendy broke the silence.

"Wow. Dallas Winston's daughter a cop." She chuckled and looked around the room. "I bet somewhere up there-" Pointing up to the ceiling. "He's about to bust a gut at the thought of his kid as a cop." They all laughed at that. They all knew from the stories their dads had told them Dallas Winston would sooner eat his leather jacket than be nice to the cops. Fate definitely had a since of humor. Jesse started laughing for no reason and cause everyone to look.

"Hey, Pete what do you think Tim Shepard will say when he founds out Dally Winston's daughter got his son arrested an hour after he came back from Iraq?"

They laughed at that and Mike asked him a question they all were wondering about since Sam Winston's confession.

"Hey Pete, is Jane really a cop? Did she really have ID on her?" He nodded his head. "Yep, had a badge with her and a knife the size of Texas strapped to her calf. She's Lt. Jane Cade, Savannah Georgia Police. Missing Persons." They had to admit a couple of law-breaking greasers having kids who became cops was pretty funny.

Ben Shepard looked over at the woman who was the current reason he was in handcuffs.

Samantha Winston.

And if the line she fed the cops were true; her dad was his dad's best friend as kids. He shook his head at the irony. Looks like they were like their dads after all. He saw the tall blonde woman talking with the cops that had arrested them and saw her glance his way. He was hoping she was going to tell them he was just trying to help. Though the way she was beating the guy he would say he should have been helping him. He was about to ask about him getting out of this cell when the doors to the small police station slammed open and admitted two tall men. He silently groaned at the sight of his father, Tim Shepard and his Uncle Curly Shepard. His father glanced around the room and caught a glimpse of Detective Samantha Winston and both men went pale in the face. His dad walked cautiously over to her and exclaimed, "Well I'll be damned! Kate Miller! What the hell are you doing back here?"

Sam turned around at her mother's name and saw a man she only saw once in a photo taken of her dad as a teenager. Her gaze shifted back and forth between the man in front of her and the younger man in the cell across from her. The resemblance was uncanny. Just like, she must resemble her mother. The man in front of her had to be Tim Shepard; her father's best friend outside of Johnny Cade. That meant the man she had unintentionally gotten arrested was his son. Oops.

She shook her head. "No. Samantha Winston." She put her hand out for him to shake it. He took it gently in his big hand.

"Tim Shepard."

He looked in her eyes and his expression took on such sadness she could actually feel it.

"You must be Dallas's girl. I can see him in your eyes." She smiled sadly at his description. Many a time her mother told her the same thing. She turned at the sound of the officer behind her call her. She turned at a choked laugh from behind her. His shocked expression was amusing to say the least.

"Detective?"

She nodded.

Tim and the other man he walked in with threw their heads back and roared with laughter.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own the Outsiders or the character Cooper Curtis; they belong to S.E. Hinton and greaserslady, respectively. Also, I altered the story just a little; instead of it being in 1966, it now takes place in 1981.

Chapter Four

At six, the next morning a tired Sam knocked on Darry Curtis's front door and was greeted by a younger man who looked a lot like Darry right down to the muscles. After he let her in, he introduced himself as Clark Kent Curtis, or Kent for short. She arched a eyebrow at that. He explained when his dad was growing up all the guys called his dad 'Superman'. His mom decided to be cute and name him Clark Kent. She chuckled at that. "I heard that, when mom was pregnant with me and my twin brother she figured I was going to take after Dad more than her so she gave me Samantha Caley." He frowned at her, not getting the connection.

"Mom saw in a baby book somewhere Samantha meant good listener and Caley meant warrior."

His blue-green eyes lightened at that and he gave a hearty laugh. "Well, it sounds like she might have named ya right. Where did you learn to fight like that? I heard from one of the paramedics you broke a guy's nose and dislocated his arm."

She accepted the cup of coffee he handed her gratefully, as soon as she left the police station this morning she went by their motel room, took a quick shower, and brought Jane a change of clothes.

She sat with him at the kitchen table and sighed into the warm coffee. Normally the only time she drank coffee was when she was working a case nonstop, but today she was going to need it when she was operating on no sleep.

She looked around before answering his question, "Jane." He gave her a odd look. "Excuse me?" She put her cup down and smiled at him. "Jane was the one who taught me how to fight like that. Woman's hell on wheels in a fight." His jaw dropped in surprise. "Where did she learn how to do all of that?" She changed the subject quickly; if Jane wanted it out she could talk about it. "How's Jane doing? Did the Doc say if she woke up or anything?" He paused before answering her. "Pete said she hasn't stirred since she left the hospital." She started to speak when she heard a loud sound.

Her and Kent went tearing out of the room and saw several people were waking up. They must have heard the sound too but didn't make it. They heard another thud upstairs. She stiffened at Jane's loud, "Where am I and who the hell are you?" They all went tearing up the stairs.

Jane awoke to the soft sound of a door closing. She continued to take deep breaths to fake sleep. She learned early on surprising the enemy helped to her advantage, so she stayed still and acted like she was asleep. She could tell by the heavy footsteps it was a man but that was all she could find out. It wasn't until she felt him take ahold of her wrist that she reacted. She jackknifed up in the bed and grabbed the guy's wrist and started to pull him over her and land on the floor by the bed. But he seemed to anticipate her move and she rolled with him with a loud thud. She continued to roll with him across the floor til they hit a chair. She flipped him over onto his back and straddled him.

She reached for her knife before she realized it wasn't there. She silently cursed when he took her surprise to his advantage and pinned her. She growled up at him and kicked him off of her. He landed gracefully on his feet when he should have been knocked on his butt. She glared at him, her temper getting the better of her now. "Where am I and who the hell are you?" she shouted. He was silent as he observed her; like the shrinks used to do when the department sent her before she was cleared for duty. For some reason that angered her more than usual, who was he or those quacks to judge her for what she had to do? She lunged at him and would have landed a hard punch to his chin had he not caught her and pinned her arms to her sides. Unfortunately, their combined weight and her struggle caused him to lose his balance and they landed with a thud. He rolled her onto her back and pinned her wrists to the ground to either side of her head. She wrapped her legs around his waist and was fixing to roll him over to his back when she heard the door burst open.

She tilted her head back and saw from upside-down Sam and a man who could have been Darry Curtis twenty years ago, standing in the doorway. She saw a small woman with dark gold hair push through the crowd behind Sam and the Darry look-alike, shaking her head and laughing. She set her hands on her hips and shook her head, "Pete, I'm no doctor but the last time I checked trying to seduce the patient was not a sign of a good beside manner."

The man on top of her- apparently his name was Pete- glared at the smaller woman. "Shut up, Bri. I'm not seducing her; the crazy she-devil jumped me while she was asleep and I had to defend myself."

She-Devil!

She'd show the cocky bastard what a she-devil really meant as soon as she could get his heavy butt off her!

She squirmed underneath him, trying to wiggle out of his grasp. He frowned down at her, "Stop that or I'll tie you to the nearest chair." She rolled her eyes; like that really scared her. She glared up into his grey-green eyes; "Normally, when I'm in this position I let a man buy me dinner and a drink first. But since you didn't-" she raised her voice with the next words, "Get off me you big ape before I turn you into a Petra!" The crowd was laughing openly now instead of the poorly muffled chuckles she heard earlier when they first discovered them.

He swore under his breath, moved off her, and pulled her to her feet. Oddly missing the soft form beneath him.

She scowled at him as he moved off her and practically yanked her to her feet, oddly missing his weight on top of her. She looked around the room and the crowd at the bedroom door. She saw a picture of Darry Curtis and a woman with two younger people in a picture beside the bed. She saw the Darry look-alike in the picture and assumed she was at Darry Curtis's house. She looked at over at the group and recognized some of them from the day they came here. She cleared her throat and spoke in a more composed voice, "I apologize for just now. I'm afraid I'm a light sleeper and tend to go into fight mode when I'm touched in my sleep."

The doctor snorted at that. She cut a glare at him that normally could make even her burly cousin shrink away from her. This one only glared back at her; she growled in the back of her throat and looked at the crowd and spotted Sam trying not to laugh, she put her hands on her hips; oblivious to Pete checking her out from the back when she did that. "What is so funny, Blue?"

She grinned at her and laughed, "Jane, you always said if you could find a guy who could take you in a fight, you were all his. Well-" she laughed for a minute before she pointed and said-"I'd say you found him. Did Dr. Curtis introduce himself before or after you got into a smack down?" She rolled her eyes and made a face at her, mumbling under her breath.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, "Sam, any other time I'd be laughing with you but as it is. Despite sleeping the whole night threw, I'm tired, hungry and would love a cup of coffee and a hot shower; so could we please get my car and go back to the motel and see about fulfilling one of those wishes?" She sobered slightly and shook her head, "No can do, Janie. A squad car took me the motel only long enough to get us both a change of clothes and bring me by here. Wanna make sure we don't skip town before they have a chance to question you." She looked past them and saw Darry Curtis was standing behind everyone; he cleared his throat and everyone but Sam, Pete, and the guy who was apparently his son, left and went downstairs. He held out a plastic bag to Sam and she in turn passed on to Jane. He smiled at her, "You're more than welcome to the shower and Cooper is fixing to make breakfast before we head out to work." She smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, Mr. Curtis. You definitely qualify for sainthood with that offer."

He laughed at that and pointed her in the bathroom's direction. She stepped past him, Sam and Kent. When the door shut and they heard, water turn on Darry turned to Sam, "Well, Miss Samantha that offer applies to you as well, care to share a cup of coffee with me?"

She rolled her eyes but nodded and followed him downstairs, leaving Kent and Pete to gape after their father and uncle. The silence was broke when Jesse bounded up the steps and spotted both Curtis men still standing in Kent's childhood room. He started laughing and they looked at him like he was insane; which was a likely possibility having Two-Bit Mathews for a father. He leaned against the doorframe and started talking, "Man, Pete I never thought I'd live to see the day you get your ass kicked in Karate." Kent sent a amused smirk his cousin's way, "And by a girl who barely reached five feet." Peter glowered at both laughing men though inwardly he was laughing too. He had to admit it was both amusing and embarrassing to be beat by a girl who probably didn't weight a hundred pounds soaking wet. And in martial arts, which he was an expert in. Little did he know, he wasn't the only martial arts expert that day in the house.

Jane ran her head under the showerhead another time and sighed happily. She felt ten pounds cleaner after washing away the dirt and yuck from her skin and hair. As much as she wanted to spend the rest of the morning in there, she knew her stomach wouldn't let her. Not after the promise of a free breakfast, she didn't have to pay for or cook. She finished up quickly and stepped out into the steamy bathroom; she wiped the condensation from the mirror and grimaced at the face that stared back at her. Her large black eyes looked even larger staring out at her, and the ugly bruise marring her cheek and jaw didn't help. She looked down at her and saw her arms and hands had cuts and bruises peppered everywhere. She pushed the thought out of her mind and ran a comb threw her hair and quickly braided it and dressed. The braid would hold til it started drying; for some reason it would stay back in a ponytail or braid when it was wet but not dry. She slipped on her sneakers and saw inside the bag Sam had managed to sneak her 'provisions' in the bag. She took the dirty clothes and bag downstairs and spotted Sam, Darry, the guy she assumed was Darry's son, a small dark-haired woman and Pete sitting around the table. She walked over to Pete and held out her hand, "My knife if you please." The only one at the table who didn't look confused was Sam, who was smiling evilly at her. Which meant she must have it. She snapped her fingers at her and held out her hand. She smiled at her and shook her head. Jane rolled her eyes and sat down in the empty chair at the table.

She shrugged, "Fine, I'll strip search ya after breakfast. And besides-" she smiled back at her evilly "-I have two more knives with me, I just like being prepared."

Cooper Curtis discreetly looked over at Jane Cade sitting at her breakfast table and decided while she looked like Johnny she didn't act like him. Over the years, Darry and her brothers-in-law told her how quiet, shy and nervous Johnny Cade was around people and life in general. This girl sitting across from her was far from that mark. From the way her son, Kent talked, she expected a tough as nails cop and found she was in a way getting that. She was small in both height and build with a wealth of black hair braided loosely from her dark face and saw the black eyes that she saw staring back at her in so many pictures she saw of her husband's childhood.

With her hair off her face and her features, Cooper realized she could pass for an Indian girl. She was drawn away from her thoughts by a choked sound and glanced up from her plate to see her son look wide-eye at something near the doorway and turned to see and felt her own eyes go wide at what she saw. Jane was standing at the doorway with a bag in her hand, but it wasn't the bag that had the Curtis family surprised.

It was what she was taking out of the bag.

She saw her pull a double gun holster out of it and turn to pull it over her shoulders. When she turned, she saw a tattoo of some foreign writing on her left shoulder, showing out from the shoulder holster and black tank top she had on. She pulled up her pants leg, put a dagger holster around her ankle, and then sheathed one in her shoulder holster. She apparently had a sheath made into the gun holster. She lifted her tank top in the back and sheathed another knife at her lower back. Before she pulled the top, back down Cooper caught a glimpse of what looked like a dragon tattoo on her lower back.

She sneaked a glance over at her husband; she knew he didn't have a high opinion of people with tattoos. But she was surprised to see not a frown of disapproval, but a look of amazement on his face.

She saw that Sam was the only one at the table that didn't have her mouth hanging open in amazement. She remembered as a teenager the streets being rough and having to carry a blade for protection, but it had been years since she had thought of that. But seeing Jane make herself a walking arsenal brought it all back. She also remembered her husband and brothers-in-laws telling her after Johnny had been jumped he started carrying a switchblade around for protection. It would appear Jane felt the same way, but she took it to a whole new level.

Sam hid a smile behind her cup of coffee as she looked at Jane along with everyone else. It looked like Jane was getting ready for a street war; little did any of them know that was Jane's normal arsenal. She laughed at the picture Jane presented; she looked up and frowned at her. She smiled and shook her head, "GI Jane, quit it you're scaring them." She gestured to her back, "And where did you get that dragon tattoo? I don't remember that being part of the tattoo the four of us getting." She shrugged and lifted her jacket off the chair, "I got it right after my last assignment." Sam nodded; she wasn't able to tell her what was going on because the case had been very confidential, but she knew that had been a particularly rough case for Jane and her new partner. "Speaking of the GI Jane comment-" She sent a glare at her; but held a trace of amusement. "-Which you know I hate with a passion-Has our transfer papers gone threw yet?" Peter while he was trying to keep from dropping his jaw at all the weapons Jane had on her, and found himself oddly excited by the sight of her preparing herself for war, looked over at her confused. Before he could ask, his Uncle Darry beat him to the punch. "What transfer papers?" Jane and Sam looked over at him and grinned excitedly. "When we found out where our dads were we decided if they were still living here we were going to move down here to be near them. We told our captains we were putting in our transfer papers and heading up to Oklahoma."

She glanced over at Jane, "Once the captain here saw my transfer papers and record, he signed me on. But Jane-" She turned fully toward here, with a look in her eye Jane was becoming accustomed to when she was asking for patience. "-Jane might be a different story. Her arresting record is one of the highest in our precinct, but her methods and her abilities has left her with the 'Wild Thing' reputation." Jane gaped at her words. She made sound of indignity in the back of her throat. "Excuse me? What are those little punks saying about me and those false rumors? That could ruin my chances in working with the police!" She started pacing the kitchen, mumbling under her breath. She stopped and snapped her fingers as she remembered who could have spread such crap about her. "I'll bet it was Tommy Calter, that little horny toad! He's has been riding my case since I put him in his place in front of his cronies at that Christmas party two years ago."

Sam laughed at that; that was a outright lie; Tommy was terrified of Jane since that party.

She continued to laugh while Jane stood there looking peeved. She laughed for a minute longer before she sobered enough to talk. "Jane, I hate to break it to you, but you scare people." Her jaw dropped and her eyes flashed at that. She closed her mouth and crossed her arms over her chest. "I beg your pardon! I do not scare people." Sam rolled her eyes and looked to the ceiling. "Jane, you might want to quit lying because God is gonna strike you dead for those whoppers your telling. Jane, your one of Savannah's leading self-defense experts and know every type of martial arts there is to know. You've been known to take down perps twice your size and weight with ease, you have military training just like I do, but you've went to the extreme and you can handle a knife like I've never seen. Face it, little sister; you scare people, plain and simple."

She rolled her eyes and said, "If you're done, I'm going to walk down to the precinct and see if I can salvage my career." She got up, thanked Darry and Cooper for their hospitality and started for the door when Peter jumped up and offered to walk her down to the police station. She looked at him warily before she said, "Alright you can come, but if you try to grope me again I'm making my first arrest, comprede?" Darry choked on his coffee and Kent patted him on the back while Cooper and Sam laughed.

Peter rolled his eyes but nodded. "Like I would touch you again, Little Girl." She started down the steps behind him, but they could still hear her response hearing a grin in her voice, "That's Lieutenant Little Girl to you." She turned with the doorknob in her hand and glared at Sam, "And for the record, _Detective_. I. Don't. Scare. People." With that, she shut the door.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders; it belongs S.E. Hinton. I'm sorry for taking so long to get this chapter posted but as that saying goes, "There just isn't enough time in the day." So I will do my best to get them posted as fast as possible.

Chapter Five

The next day Sam found herself standing out on the front porch of a small house; she looked around again and saw she was indeed at the right address. She knocked again on the front door and was about to turn to leave when the door finally opened. She barely held the surprised gasp back, Ben Shepard stood in the doorway of the house. But it wasn't that, that had her furiously holding back a blush; it was the fact the man stood barefoot in only a pair of half-buttoned jeans. And looked like he had been chiseled out of granite; she had seen muscles before with her brother and in the precinct gym. But not like him; every inch of him was muscle, even his hands and neck were corded with muscle.

She did blush when she heard him clear his throat and gave her a knowing smirk.

"Are you going to stand out here in the cold or are you going to come in?" She wanted to give a flippant response, but she found she couldn't get her mouth to move. If she did move it, only drool would come out at the moment. She nodded numbly and walked into the house after him. At first glance, she saw only a man's touch in the room, but as she walked further into the room, she saw a woman's touch as well.

Not that that surprised her, she found out from Mike and Kent that Ben stayed at his parents's house for a couple of weeks after a tour before going back to his home in Oklahoma City. He walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. He held up a cup and she declined, she wanted to say what she came here to say and go before she made a fool of herself. She cleared her throat, "I came by to apologize for yesterday. I had no idea they would arrest you for trying to help." He was silent, they stood in the silence. She turned to leave when he finally spoke. "It's alright. The cops around here have been laying bets about my arrest since I could crawl." She turned back around and smiled back at him, "I know, I might look like my mother, but all anyone has to do is look at my eyes and they know who my father was. I'm going to have a reputation around here before the ink even dries on the reports." She sighed.

"I guess it's something I'll have to get used to if I'm going to live here."

He froze in mid sip of coffee. Surely, she wasn't going to stay in Tulsa. She would have to face ridicule from a lot of people around here that threw parties when Dallas Winston was killed by the police. Could she handle that kind of maliceness from people that hated her father with a passion?

An hour later, Sam was glancing around a gun shop in downtown Tulsa and waited for someone to wait on them. Jane looked around the display case in the corner. She gestured to her and she moved to her side. To none her surprise, it was knife display case. She grinned at her, "Well, I think I just spotted what I want for my birthday." Sam rolled her eyes at her, "I am not buying you a tomahawk or a set of throwing stars. You're dangerous enough with a throwing _knife_. Nuh-nuh. No way."

She crossed her arms over her chest and pretended to pout. "You never let me have any fun anymore," she said in a childish voice. She stuck her tongue out at her and turned back to the display.

Sam couldn't help but laugh, she had been around Mikey and Shelby way too long.

A sound in the back broke threw their thoughts. She nodded to Jane and she nodded back, walking on the balls of her feet to the side of the back door where the sound came from. She palmed her knife in her hand and kept it close to her body. Sam walked silently to the other side, taking out her sidearm as she went. A tall man emerged from the back and Sam barely had time to yank him to the side when Jane attacked. Jane looked at her in disbelief. That is til she looked good at the man's face and recognized him, to Sam's amazement she started to blush. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Shepard. We heard a sound coming

from the back and I reacted on instinct."

Tim Shepard dusted his jeans off where he landed on the floor. Damn, but the girl have a strong grip. He eyed Jane's knife warily. There was only other woman he ever saw that wielded a knife like that, and that was Val Miller, Kate Miller's twin. He was surprised how much Jane looked like Cade. But in that moment with her eyes flashing and her hair wild about her face and shoulders; he saw Val in her clear as day. He cleared his throat and moved cautiously to the other side of the counter. "How can I help, you ladies?" Both looked alittle surprised at his polite tone.

Hey, he might have been the biggest badass around Tulsa back in the day; but even the old hood in him knew when to show respect to someone who could easily cut his throat in a flash or someone to pull him out of said knife's range.

Sam moved to the counter and pulled a gun out of a holster hidden by her heavy coat, sitting it on the counter. "I need a couple of ammunition clips for this one and another one." He picked up the gun gently and released the magazine from the bottom. He gave it a sweep with a expert eye and was impressed. The gun was Glock 22 and was well maintained. He examine it for a few more minutes before he looked back up at her, "Your in luck I got a new shipment in today of this type of ammunition." He handed her the gun back, bent under the counter in front of him, and laid two boxes of the ammunition in front of her. "What's the other one?" She pulled a Smith and Wesson revolver from the back of her jeans and set in front of him. He turned it around and released the cylinder, showing six rounds, he nodded. "Got these too."

He looked over her shoulder at Jane, who was back to looking at the knife case. "Do you need any ammunition while I'm at it?" "Yeah," she said and walked to stand by Sam's side. She pulled back her coat and took out two guns from shoulder holsters and one from her left pants leg. He arched a brow at her, "Like to come prepare, I see. Anything else?" He meant it as a joke, but her response was by taking a large throwing knife from her back, two smaller one from her side and right pants leg. He gaped at the weapons lying on his counter near Sam's revolver and boxes of ammunition.

"It this it?" He was half-afraid there was more, although were she would hide them he didn't know.

She grinned at him, "Well," she drawled, "I would have a set of throwing stars, but _somebody_," she cut her eyes toward Sam, "wouldn't buy them for me as a early birthday present." Sam rolled her eyes at her, "I am not buying you a set of throwing stars _or_ a tomahawk."

She snorted, "Your dangerous enough as it is. You practically qualify as a Lethal Weapon already."

She made a face at her and then mimicked her with her hand while Tim looked on in amazement. One minute they reminded him of Dallas and Cade so much it hurt and shocked him. Then in the next, it was like he stepped back in time twenty-five years and he saw the twin sisters pickin' at one another and laughing at something that only the other one got.

A week had passed since the incident in the park and Jesse Mathews was glad for that. He was standing outside the bar he co-owned and was painting a sign on one of the windows near the door as he was thinking. He knew his dad and uncles were glad that it had ended with minor injuries. He wouldn't be forgetting the look on their faces when they all ran to the park any time soon. There wasn't a kid around here or from the gang that didn't hear about how Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston died before they were born. But for his sister, adopted cousins and himself, it wasn't a story around town; it was real and stayed with his father and uncles ever since that fateful night.

His thoughts were interrupted by the loud sound of an engine.

A motorcycle to be precise.

He turned at the sound and sure enough, there was a Harley-Davidson roaring up the street. It was hard to distinguish if the rider was a man or woman. Until they stopped in front of him; the driver stopped in front of him and took their helmet off. At the first shake of her head, he knew she was different. It wasn't just her short red hair or the fact she rode a Harley. It was something all together. She smiled at him and got off the bike. She wore a big leather jacket, boots, gloves and dark blue jeans and had a helmet with a white tiger painted across the back.

Though the jacket was big, he could see the curves of her body, she stood directly in front of him and he saw she was tall. She looked to be five-ten at least, she held out her hand and spoke in a quiet, but deep voice, "Hi, I'm Randi Lewis. Do you know if a Jane Cade or Sam Winston are in town?"

He felt his mouth open and closed it when he couldn't speak. She had a voice that sent shivers down his spine. She was Demi Moore with a southern drawl. The fog she inspired faded enough to remember her question.

Jane Cade and Sam Winston.

Wait, she was looking for Jane and Sam. Who was she, this leather-clad goddess?

He looked at her suspiciously.

"Why are you looking for them?"

"One of them called me the other night and let it slip they were in a fight. I rode all night to get here after we talked last night. I went to the hospital and they told me Jane Cade was released to a Peter Curtis." Against his better judgment, he gave her directions to the house. As soon as she was out of sight he set the 'Out to Lunch' sign in the bar window and headed for his truck and took the shortcut for the Curtis house.

A week later, the girls were back at the Curtis home. The gang's kids were sitting around the living room; most were on winter break from school while the rest were going into work later or just getting off from work. The older kids were talking about taking Jane and Sam out to congratulate them on getting on with the Tulsa Police; the police chief figured with Jane's skills and Sam's brilliant strategies the Tulsa Police Department would be all the more better with them on board.

The conversation was interrupted by the loud engine of a motorcycle. Sam and Jane looked at one another and knew who it was.

"She wouldn't!" Jane said.

"She would!" Sam said.

The group looked them curiously; which they ignored, as they went tearing out the door with the gang hot on their heels. Sure enough, there stood leaning against her Harley was Randi Lewis.

Sam shook her head at the younger woman. Jane stood there with her hands on her hips looking peeved.

"Randi Serena Lewis what in God's Creation are you doing here? I told you not to come down here!"

She smiled at them and walked up the path unzipping her jacket as she went. She wore heels, jeans, her open jacket and a pink flowing top that covered and hinted at the curves of her body. She stood in front of them grinning boldly up at them from their positions on the porch. Before anyone could speak, they all heard the roar of Jesse's truck pull up behind Randi's motorcycle. He came tearing out of the driver's side and stopped short at the sight of her in the yard. Though Randi was oblivious to it, they saw Jesse's tongue was practically hanging out of his mouth at the full sight of her. It didn't surprise Sam that Randi was oblivious to the effect she had on men.

To Randi, she was still that tall, plump girl in high school; she didn't notice that the beauty she had was the kind that made people stop and take notice or that she had a figure most men would love to look at. She remembered one time a boy had been so cruel to Randi when she was a freshmen in high school she cried herself to sleep later that night.

Al beat the hell out of the guy the next day. In high school, Al was Randi's unofficial protector til the day they all left the school for good.

Jane walked off the porch and practically knocked Randi over in a hug. She laughed as she wobbled in her high heels for a moment. She returned the hug. "Whoa, Jane. Pregnant lady here. I want to enjoy wearing these heels before I have to trade them in for flats." Sam dropped down onto the top step at the news; Jane pulled back with her mouth open. She chuckled, closing her mouth with a flick of her finger.

Sam looked at the girls she always considered her sisters; Jane was her cousin and Randi was their neighbor and friend since they moved back to Savannah when they were eleven and she was ten.

Jane looked at her in shock.

"You're pregnant?"

"When?"

"How?"

"By who?"

Randi wrinkled her nose at the last question as if it offended her. Jeez, she knew she had improved some since high school but she wasn't a complete dog!

She shook her head.

"Never mind. What about you two? Gettin' in a fight down here when your not here a full twenty-four hours?" She scowled at the two older women she considered her big sisters. Her scowl faded into a big grin.

"And why the hell didn't you invite me to come down? We would've have been like the three musketeers again! I've been itching for a good fight."

Wendy laughed at her comment.

"Somehow I have a feeling that's both true and a bunch of bull all at once."

Maddie spoke up then; after sizing Randi up of course.

"Randi, you're welcome to come in and sit with us."

Both women were the same height and Randi had alittle extra due to her heels. Wendy figured it was because her cousin had always been the tallest girl in the gang she was alittle intimated by this newcomer.

She smiled kindly at her and thanked her for her offer after coming into the house.

An hour later Randi was sitting in the mustang with Sam and Jane to look at a apartment they would be sharing. It wasn't until Sam was checking out one of the bedrooms that Jane cornered Randi in the kitchen.

"Alright, Ren. Why are you really here?"

She looked offended, "What? Can't a little sister be concerned that her two big sisters were hurt in a fight and want to check and see for herself their alright?"

Jane ignored the twinge of guilt at the hurt in her baby sister's voice.

"You don't pick up in the middle of the night just to check on us. You could have easily done that over the phone. Randi-" she gentled her tone; trying to keep calm now that it clicked Randi might be here for more than one reason. "-Randi, is there anything wrong with the baby?" She shook her head, turning around and showed the fear in her eyes. "No, I hope not. I don't know."

Jane frowned her confusion. She sighed and started again.

"I went to a sperm bank about four weeks ago and was artificial inseminated. About two weeks later, I started getting the nausea and sensitivity to smell; you know like when you're pregnant. I went to the doctor and he confirmed my pregnancy. But, because I started showing the symptoms so early on, they told me I stood a greater chance of miscarrying than normal, so I decided to wait til I further along to tell anyone. But that's not going to happen." She took a deep breath and let out unsteady. "They mixed up the donors, Jane. The donor I choose didn't father my baby. They tried to find how it happened and who the donor was, but so far his file was destroyed and they can't find anything yet." She went to the window over looking the kitchen sink, standing there looking so vulnerable, Jane's heart went out to her. She walked to her side and put a arm around her waist and rubbed her back with the other. She leaned her head on top of Jane's. The gesture reminded her of what Randi used to do when they were children. Randi raised her head, and to Jane's heartache, had tears in her big green eyes. "I scared, Janie. I'm so scared. What if the donor decides to fight me custody for the baby?" She hugged her to her, shushing her. "I can't lose my baby, Jane. I can't," she sobbed into her shoulder. "Shh, don't worry Randi. We'll fight it if it comes to that. But no one will take your baby away."

"She's right, Ren." They looked up and saw Sam enter the room with a determined look on her face. She walked up to them and took them both in her arms, holding them in a fierce hug. She kissed her 'baby' sister's red head, "We won't let that happen, even if we have to fight him all the way up to the Supreme Court. He won't get your baby." She pulled away from them and wiped at her tears and smiled wanly, "Thank, guys. I really appreciate your support." They smiled at her, "Hey, what are sisters for?"

Sam smiled deviously at Jane, "You mean besides pranks and torment? I still haven't paid you back for that ink prank you pulled on me two months ago!"

They all laughed at that and hugged one another. Sam pulled back, "Well, I don't know about you girls, but I hate this apartment, let's go find the next one on our list."

Randi breathed a sigh of relief for her sisters's help, but covered it with a exaggerated sigh of relief, "Oh, Thank God! For a moment there, I thought I was going to have to pretend I liked this place!" They laughed at her expression and headed out to the next apartment on their list.

_Thank you all very much for your reviews and I really appreciate it. If you see anything that needs correcting, please let me know._


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or any other characters I can't think of right now. They belong to S.E. Hinton and others.

Chapter Six

Three hours and one lease agreement later they were heading back to Darry Curtis's house to get Randi's bike. They pulled up just as a couple on a motorcycle came tearing up the road and stopped suddenly by the fence. They got out just as the couple was getting off the bike. Sam and Jane smiled when they saw it was Bri and Mike, they were drawn from their thoughts when the screen door slammed open and out came Soda and Steve. They stopped short when they saw Randi's bike gleaming in the moonlight, not that Sam blamed them. It was a Harley-Davidson that sat low on the ground and purred like a large cat when in motion. She saw Mike approach the bike as Randi was getting out of the car.

He ran his hand over the handles and gas tank to the leather seat of the bike. It was sharp, painted a deep metallic green it shone in the moonlight like a mystic gem. He looked up at his father and uncle, "Where did you get this bike, it's damn beautiful!"

"Its mine."

He spun around in the direction of the voice and saw a tall redhead come up to him. As she moved into the light he saw she was nearly as tall as him and looked like she stepped out of one of those biker magazines. She wore jeans, a black leather jacket and a pink top, and as she moved to stand by the bike he could have sworn he saw a pair of high heels on her feet.

He nodded to her, "Nice bike, it's a FLSTN/I softtail isn't it? Damn beautiful, where did you get it they haven't hit many stores yet."

She nodded, running a loving hand over the handlebars, she glanced over his shoulder and smiled, "Thanks, but I like yours better. It's a Harley Davidson Springer classic isn't it? With a Twin Cam 88BTM engine, right?"

He stood there for a moment, gaping at her before he closed his mouth and offered his hand. "Mike Randle."

She laughed and shook his offered hand, "Randi Lewis."

She looked up to see a woman coming over to them, "And judging by the way the blonde behind ya is eyeballing ya, I'm guessing she's either your wife or your girlfriend." Bri offered her hand to her, "Bri Curtis, you must be the Randi Sam and Jane told us about." She glanced back at them, then back at the couple standing in front of her. "All good things I hope."

Sam rolled her eyes at her, "Hey, Randi! Your already pregnant, no reason in you trying for more." She rolled her eyes, while the couple in front of her gaped at her. "Your kidding! Congratulations!"

"Whose the father?"

She looked over to the fence to see who asked it, she saw two men standing there, and judging by the how Bri and Mike looked like them, she would say they were related. She smiled, "Yeah, I'm pregnant, alittle over three weeks. Sam's the father."

She inwardly laughed at Sam's shriek of outrage. She lunged for her, only to have Jane holding her back by her jacket, shaking her head at her.

She walked to her bike and mounted it, "Well, ladies and gentlemen it's been a pleasure meeting you, but I need to get a room and before my dear big sister decides to kill me and hide my body in the woods." She put her hand in her jacket pocket and found it empty. She frowned, and checked the other one.

Still, nothing.

She heard a evil laugh and looked up to see Sam looking like the cat that ate the canary. "Randi, lookie what I got!" she said in a singsong voice. She dangled her keys from her finger. She sagged on her bike, making a face. She had her keys. Damn.

"Aw, hell. I knew I shouldn't have taught you how to pick pockets." She slid off the bike just as Sam threw the keys over her shoulder and gave an evil laugh. She looked over her shoulder to see Jane trying not to laugh. "Uh, Ran?" She inched toward the fence, "Yeah?" She got to the fence gate, "Run like hell." She tore it open and ran for the house, and heard Sam come after her. _"Note to self: never piss Sam off again,"_ she thought.

Cooper heard the front door burst open, but ignored it til she heard a unfamiliar voice running threw her living room. "Outta the way, I got a ticked-off Winston on my heels!" A blur ran past her and leapt up on the counter. She looked around and saw a red headed woman sitting on her kitchen counter.

Eating one of the carrots she laid out for stew.

She heard the door slam open again the sound of running feet coming closer. She looked up threw the doorway when she heard a thud and a muffled curse. Sam was lying facedown about a foot away from the kitchen doorway. She looked up at the muffled sound coming from her; she wrinkled her nose and blew a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. She pushed herself up from the floor, hands on hips. The woman on the counter, chuckled and took a bit of the carrot. "Eeh, what's up, Doc? Or should I say cop?"

She laughed and heard footsteps come downstairs, a second later her daughter and twin nieces, Naomi and Patti walked into the kitchen. Maddie looked at the redhead wryly, "Hi, Randi. Back so soon?"

She hopped down from the counter, still nibbling on the carrot in her hand. "Yeah, I kinda had a upset transvestite on my heels and your place looked the safest." Sam let out a snarl and started for her when Jane came up behind and yanked her back and slammed her in a chair next to the doorway. "Stand down, Winston. Remember, not only do you have to deal with me if you hurt Ren over there; you have to deal with Aunt Brooke, and knowing her she just might actually turn you into a frog." She made a face and muttered her breath. Jane turned to a smug Randi and tsked at her, "And you don't need to be looking so smug, or have you forgot who kicked your ass in our last fight?" She pouted and stomped her foot, "You never let me have any fun anymore!" she cried in a childish voice. Then she smiled playfully at her. "Alright, you big fun killer I'll quit. Contrary to popular belief, I don't have a death wish." Jane looked doubtful. "Good, now apologize to the transvestite." Sam glowered at her. She grinned at her, "I'm teasin ya, Sammie. Jeesh, Miss Priss get a sense of humor. Besides, a blind man can tell you're a woman and not a man." Randi smirked and started to say something; Jane turned around and pointed a finger at her. "And you, don't be startin anymore trouble, Brat. Cause next time I'm gonna knock you both upset the head; make ya crazier than ya already are." Darry and Kent looked at Jane doubtfully, they had come into the kitchen at some point along with Two-Bit and the rest of the guys. Randi sulked but agreed, she knew when to and when not push Jane's buttons and tonight she was not in the mood for button pushing. She held out her hand and Jane tossed her the keys to her bike, then she turned to the woman she assumed was Cooper since Maddie called her Mom, and apologized for barging in when she did. She accepted it and asked would she like to stay for dinner. She declined and said she needed to find a motel before it was too late. She started out the door and was about to go down the steps when she heard the sound of a lighter being flicked.

She turned around and saw two men on the porch; one was leaning against the house with a cigarette in his hand while the other was sitting down with a unopened bottle of Bud Light. She saw the one with the cigarette was the guy from the bar earlier.

Jesse, she remembered being introduced to him earlier today. But the guy sitting down she didn't remember him from earlier and he didn't look like any of the people she passed by as she was leaving. Jesse flicked the ashes off the side of the porch and grinned at her. She saw then the resemblance to the grey-eyed man in the house. So he must be Two-Bit Mathews's son. "So, heard you made quite a entrance in this town. Managed to impress Mike Randle, earned Maddie Curtis's respect and earn a date all in one day." She arched her brows at the last part. "Oh really, cause funny I don't remember be asked out." He stomped out his cigarette and sauntered over to her, "Really, cause I thought did. But just to be sure, wanna go out Friday night to the drive-in. Then maybe alittle dessert at my place." She didn't bother to hide her laughter; this guy really was too much.

"You got nerve, Mathews I'll say that much. You do realize I'm carrying another man's child don't you? For all you know, I could be married and my husband could be a NFL linebacker the New Orleans Saints, ready to come down here at my go-ahead to pound your head in. Or I could be gay."

He grinned that same grin at her and gestured to her left hand. "I knew you weren't married, no ring. And as for being gay," he gave her a once-over that she felt go straight threw her, "well, I have to say that's a damn shame. Seein as you were looking at me like I was your last meal earlier." She rolled her eyes at that, heaven save her from cocky over-confident men. "That's a good one; you should practice that one at the comedy clubs. And I'll think I'll pass on the date. But thanks anyway." She started to turn when she heard a snicker from behind her. She looked drolly at the laughing man, "And what may I ask is so funny?" she asked in a fake British accent. Both men looked at her shocked.

She frowned at their reactions why so surprised she faked an accent?

She shrugged her shoulders, "You guys are weird. And here I thought I left the strange and weirdness behind in Savannah. I'm gone." And with that she zipped her jacket and went down the steps and hopped on her bike and left to get a room at the local motel.

Jesse walked into the Curtis house and heard the noise emanating from the kitchen. He walked in and was handed two bowls of stew and a couple of spoons. He passed the second bowl back to Ben and seated himself on one of the counters. He took a bite of the stew before he spoke to Jane and Sam. "So, let me ask you girls something, is your friend Randi married or gay?" Sam choked on her bite of stew while Jane choked on her drink. Ben patted Sam on the back while Pete leaned around Jane and thumped her on the back. She glared at him, "Would you mind not hitting me that hard, I'd like to keep my lungs in place thank you very much!" He backed off and went back to eating, sneaking a glance at her when her and nobody else was looking.

Except for Sam, she saw the interaction between the pair. Pete was attracted to Jane and Jane as to him, but hell would freeze over before Jane admitted it.

Her ex had really done a number on her, in the seven years since that time she could count on one hand how many boyfriends her sister had had or had dated for that matter. She was a bit gun-shy of relationships since that time.

She was drawn back to the present by Jane's voice. "No, she's not married and she for sure isn't gay." Before she had chance to say more Bri asked a question, "Where's she from originally? Her accents sounds like ya'lls, but different."

Sam took a bite before answering, "She's from New Orleans originally, her mom and her moved to Savannah right after her parents divorce."

Mike looked surprised. "She from Louisiana? I thought her accent sounded familiar." Both women looked at him puzzled. He shrugged, "I lived in Baton Rouge with my mom before I came to live here."

Sam frowned at him, "Neither do you or Meg have a accent like Randi's or Aunt Brooke's; I guess ya'll lost yours."

He laughed, "Meg isn't my mother." Jane looked at him with a puzzled look, "I thought Meg was your mom."

He arched his eyebrow at her words, "No, she's my step mom, we don't look or act nothing alike. Most people can tell we're not blood related."

Jane grinned, "Hello?" she gestured back and forth to her and Sam. "Most people don't think we're related at all. Growing up I looked more like dad than mom so most people thought I was adopted."

Soda scoffed, "I don't see it. You might look like Johnny, but from what I've seen of you so far, you're a lot like Val too."

His words left both women speechless. Tim had made the same comment to Sam yesterday when she went to his house to talk with him about her dad. Neither had thought they resembled their mothers much in anyway. They ate the rest of their food in silence.

Jane went outside to heat up her car and saw Mike and Jesse do the same. She was getting out of her car when she saw Mike roll his bike up into the bed of Jesse's truck. She stopped by the bed and looked up at Mike as he was strapping down the bike, "You said Meg is your step mom, what happened to your real mom?" He paused in strapping down the back wheel, her question bringing back memories he would rather lay in the past. He finally realized he had been luckier than she was; he at least knew what happened to his mom as a kid. Jane was left to wonder if her father had a wife and kids or if he was dead somewhere. He continued to strap down his bike. "Do you remember an Evie Coleman from your mom's stories of Tulsa?"

She nodded. "Vaguely, I heard them both say she dated Steve a time or two before they left." He nodded. "Yeah, well she was my mother." She stilled and her gaze sharpened on his face, she had a feeling she knew the answer, but still she asked.

"I take by your past tense she died," she said softly. He nodded jerkily, it was clear he still felt pain about his mother's death. She could understand that, even after all this time her mother and aunt still teared up at the mention of her grandparents.

"You take it right. She died of leukemia when I was six. By the time she went to the doctor she was too far gone for treatment and she had six weeks left to live." Her stomach tightened in sympathy for him, losing your parent to illness at any age was tough, but twice as hard when you're a young child and it happens. "Mom said she never told dad about me, so when she died I was sent to a group home for seven months before they found Dad. When they found him they sent me on a plane to Oklahoma City and a social worker drove here from there." He jumped down from the truck and went inside to get Bri.

"Don't let his attitude mislead ya."

She turned and saw Jesse leave the cab of the truck, he obviously heard it all. "Out of all us kids, Mike would be the one to understand you guys coming here better than any one else. If you need any help with anything, ask him and him and Bri will help you with what they can." She gazed at him, "What do you mean by Bri helping out too? Alli is her mom isn't she?" He shook his head.

"Alli was Bri's teacher in school and her and Soda go together later on in the school year. Sandy Laurens was Bri's birth mom; she left her on Soda's doorstep when she was a newborn and never looked back. At least til Bri turned eighteen."

Her eyes widened at his words.

"She had the gall to come back?" He nodded, anger for his friend showing in his grey eyes. "On Bri's eighteenth birthday; but by that time Alli and Soda was married and Alli became Bri's adopted mother. She told Sandy to go back to Florida that she had her chance to know her and she blew it. That was the last any of us heard from her."

He started to say something else when the front door slammed and she looked up to see Bri and Mike coming down the steps. She stepped back from the truck and said goodbye to them as they drove off. She sighed and walked back into the house while the car heated up. She walked in and heard Sam laughing at something Soda and Pony told her. Sam looked up and saw her. "Hey, Janie. Bri, Mike and Jesse already left?" She nodded and sat down on the sofa next to her. She looked up at footsteps and saw Kent and Peter sit down next to her. Peter sat down to her left, pressing against the side of her thigh with his. She turned her attention to Sam across from her; hiding the blush warming her cheeks with her long hair. She would not let the smug missing link think he affected her at all. Even though she found him an annoying distraction. She sneaked a glance at him and he saw her look, and gave her a grin. She mentally rolled her eyes; a very cocky, attractive distraction.

She turned her attention to Darry who asked if they had any luck finding an apartment yet. She turned it her full attention toward the conversation til it was time to leave.

As she said her goodbyes and saw Pony and Peter pull out behind her. Peter gave her what could only be considered a sexy grin.

No she would not let the handsome, arrogant paramedic know she was attracted to him in the worst way. No way. Not gonna to happen.

Thank you for the review and for being patient with me with this chapter being released.


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders; they belong to S.E. Hinton. Also, fair warning, there will be swearing, there will be violence and a love scene or two thrown into the mix._

Chapter Seven

At the end of the week Jane and Sam were packing their bags and leaving the motel. They were moving into their apartment that day. With the exception of having to buy new beds and mattresses, the whole apartment was already furnished. So that was one less thing they had to worry about. They got to the apartment building just as Darry and Pony did in Darry's big Ford. They got out of the truck and they lead them upstairs to the apartment, Sam directed them to the bedrooms as they hauled the mattresses in. "Okay, a little to the left. No, the other left." She led them down the hallway to her room, directing them with her voice and hand gestures they couldn't see.

"Lift your end a little higher; Pony so you can clear the phone on the table. Okay, watch the door guys." They finally set the mattress down against the wall in a corner and went down to get the boxsprings when they heard voices in the living room, the three of them went walked to the doorway leading to the living room and saw Kent, Pony and a tall dark haired guy she never met, holding headboards and footboards to the beds and the boxsprings that went into her room while Jane held a set of slats in one hand and another set at her feet. Darry went directly over to the dark-haired man and took one end of the headboard that went into her room. "Randy, good to see you! How's your parents and sister?" He smiled and nodded his head, "Their good. Edie's getting to graduate vet school earlier than we thought she would. Johanna and me got married last month."

Darry and Pony looked surprised while Kent and Peter were slapping him on the back and congratulating him. Pony saw Jane and Sam's puzzled expressions and said, "Sorry where are our manners? Ladies want you to meet Randy Adderson Jr., his dad became friends of ours after Johnny and Dally died. Randy, like you to meet Sam Winston and Jane Cade; these are Johnny and Dally's girls." His eyes lit on them, making him have a mischievous look to him. He held out his free hand to both women.

"Pleasure to meet ya. I've been wanting to meet the women who kicked Ian Walker's ass. Heard the first night you ladies were in town you wiped the floor with him and a bunch of his stoolies." They laughed, and waved the comment away. "Actually it was the second night we were in town, and it wasn't a fair fight."

Jane snorted, "Yeah. We were sober and they weren't. Although I have to admit it was nice to know I can still throw a decent punch." Peter looked at her speculatively, "So you're the one who broke Charlie O'Malley's nose. I wondered who did it. The man's got a hard head as it is!" Sam laughed and saw Jane's face turn a faint pink at his words.

After helping them set up the beds the guys went back to work and Sam went down to the Wal-Mart to get some supplies and a week worth of groceries. Jane willingly handed over the keys to her mustang and sent Sam on her way. Normally she wouldn't let Sam within two feet of the driver's seat; but she wanted to make a phone call without an audience to hear it.

She went into her room and sat down on the blanket-covered mattress and pulled her cell phone out of her jean pocket and made a call. On the fourth ring a woman's voice came over the line. She frowned at her mother's voice; she sounded like she had been crying. "Mom, are you okay? You sound like you've been crying." She sniffed and came back, her voice sounding less thick than it had when she first answered.

"Yeah, I'm fine honey. Just got alittle cold."

She made a face her mother couldn't see. How she wished she hadn't broke the news about her father so abruptly, but she herself had had a just heard that he died before she was born, before she really got the chance to know him. She heard her move around before she spoke again, "So, how are you liking Tulsa so far? Have you started working yet?" She sighed inwardly; if her mother didn't want to talk she wouldn't til she was good and ready.

Something she got from her as well as her temper. "Yeah, I like it so far; it's still the same the way you described it and other ways, it's changed." She got up and went into the living room and picked up her suitcase and took it back into her room. She unlocked it and put her clean clothes away in the dresser before her. "As for my job, I start in their Missing Persons unit early Monday morning."

"So they didn't pair you and Sam back up did they?"

She gave a humorless laugh, "Of course not. They don't want history repeating itself." And neither did she, both of them had nearly been killed the last time they were partners on a case. And honestly, she didn't think she could survive it again.

Peter knocked on the door to Jane and Sam's new apartment, when no one answered he tried the knob and felt it turn in his hand. He didn't get a bad vibe so no one was hurt; he walked inside and heard a voice in one of the bedrooms. On silent feet he walked to the last bedroom and saw Jane standing in front of the dresser talking on the phone to someone. She was taking clothes out the suitcase sitting on top of the dresser and putting them in drawers, she held out what looked like an old shirt and blue jeans. "Yeah, Mom we're fine so you and Aunt Kate and Brooke can stop worrying about us." She shook her head and began to unzip the sweater she wore. He stood there transfixed, he knew he should look away, or sneak back into the living room and announce his arrival and pretend he never saw her standing there in only her bra and pants.

But he couldn't, she unbuttoned and zipped her jeans and slid them down her legs, kicking them in a corner. He found himself mesmerized by her; she was slim but curved in all the right places. Her legs were smooth and strong and clearly the legs of a runner, her stomach was flat and showed a hint of definition. He found himself looking away before he looked at her breasts; because if he didn't he would be giving into temptation and throwing her back on the bed behind her. To his relief, she pulled the shirt on, hiding everything from her neck to her thighs. She lifted the bag off the dresser and stuffed it in the closet next to it, and then pulled her jeans on and holding the phone with her shoulder she pulled her hair back into a sloppy but tight bun on top of her head. He started to turn away when he heard her mention his name. "No mom, I'm not dating anyone yet." Her lips twitched before she gave a scowl only she could see. "Randi needs to learn when to speak and when to keep her mouth shut. And there's only two Curtis boys and both are younger than I am." She flushed, "Yes, Pony has a son. Peter was the one I got into a fight with the morning I woke up and reacted like I did." She smiled and said, "Would you quit laughing at me!" She sat back on the bed, "Mom, he's not the one. Trust me, he might look good but he's too arrogant for me."

"I'd be hitting him at the end of the first date!" She blushed and laid back on the bed. "Oh, he's gorgeous. Picture a grown Pony with dark hair and that's Peter. All six foot four of him." She laughed and nodded, "Yeah, and Pony's only an inch shorter than he is so someone must have been feeding them Miracle-Grow, and putting something in the water cause so far all the guys I've seen are good-looking. Especially Ben Shepard." Peter felt an irrational surge of jealousy at the mention of the rest of the guys. She laughed, "Oh, no; I'm not about to infringe on Sam's territory. I've seen how she looks at him when she thinks nobody's watching. She's got the hots for him, bad. Betcha twenty bucks they have a date by the end of the week."

She sobered and said softly, "Yeah, she does deserve someone good after what the Loser did to her." She sat up and froze when she caught sight of him; he cursed himself for not leaving when he had a chance. Now he was going to have to explain an awkward situation. She cleared her throat, "Hey Mom, I've got to let you go." She glared at him, "I've got a big rat to take care of. I'll talk to you later. Give them my love. Alright, bye." She closed the cell and tossed it over her shoulder, landing on the bed behind her. She strided to him, her steps angry. She stopped about a foot in front of him, her hands resting on her hips, "How long were you standing there?" she asked in a calm voice.

His silence was telling.

Her eyes widened when she realized he had seen her get undressed. She glowered at the taller man. "You big pervert, you watched me get dressed! You are damn lucky I don't arrest you for peeping." She shoved him hard, getting angrier when he didn't even budge. She pushed past him and went into the living room. She started to the door when he jerked her back. She turned around and started to slap him, his hand barely catching her wrist before her hand made contact. Before she realized what he was doing he yanked her to him, causing her to land flat against his chest, and tangled his hand in her hair and his lips crashed on hers.

Sam looked down the aisle of the local Wal-Mart and found the paint section in the back of the store. She looked at the color chips and found the color similar to what Jane wanted, then went to find the one she wanted. They were painting their rooms tonight after they ate a quick supper; she looked at the rest of the colors and was glad that they didn't have to paint the rest of the place. The apartment wasn't really within their budget but when they saw the bedrooms, bathroom and hallway was in needed to be painted and repairs done they made an agreement with the building manager. They would do the repairs and paint themselves if he lowered the rent.

He agreed, obviously thinking they were being taken by him. She smiled as she went through the hardware section and began picking up various tools and supplies they would need.

Little did the manager know they had experience with repairs from the years of living in their old nearly depilated family home. She moved out of the hardware section and made her way over to the grocery section of the store. She had her head in the freezer getting some milk when she heard someone call her name. She looked up and saw Ben walking toward her; he had a pack of Bud Light in one hand and a large paper bag in the other that had the Wal-Mart Deli written across it. She smiled at him as he came up to her, "Hi, Ben. Grocery shopping I see?" she gestured to the beer and bag of food in his hands." He chuckled and shook his head, "Naw, just some last minute provisions for the boys and me."

She looked at him curiously and gestured for him to follow her; he shrugged and stepped in line with her as she went down the aisle, picking up butter, a can of biscuits and a carton of eggs as she went. "So, I take it it's just you, Jesse, Kent, Mike, Peter, and that guy Randy that came by with Peter and Jesse earlier?" He nodded and set the pack of beer on the bottom of the buggy and lifted a pack of soda for her into the buggy. She smiled her thanks, trying not to notice how the muscles in his arm and shoulders bunched as he lifted the carton of drinks into the buggy. He set them down in the buggy and moved back to her side, "So Jesse said you guys moved into your apartment today. You guys are really staying on here, huh?" She nodded, "Yeah, we wanted to find our fathers and a change of scenery. Coming to Tulsa to find them filled both quotas."

They moved on to the next aisle and she bent down to get a container of cooking oil, trying not to wince when the heavy container pulled at tendons that weren't completely healed. Before she could grasp it with the other hand, a large male hand and forearm came around her and took the container out of her hand. She looked up in time to see him putting it in the cart; he looked back at her with question in his eyes. To her relief he didn't ask questions and she wasn't about to offer up any answers. She looked up and down the aisle and added a small bag of flour and a couple of bottles of seasonings to the cart.

They were quiet as they went threw the store, and it wasn't til Sam was reaching for a loaf of bread on a high self that he spoke, "Sam," she looked up with the loaf in hand.

To her surprise he looked alittle flustered.

"Sam, I was wondering me and bunch of the gang is going down to the Y tomorrow afternoon, you wanna come?" Her eyes lit up and she smiled, "I'd like that a lot. Besides," she grinned devilishly at him. "I hear you had some fancy training; knowing Jane she'll want to see what ya got. I can't wait to see it." She continued down the aisle and he followed her. "What do you mean by that?" She smiled at him and laughed, "Let's just say if Jane was in a fight and they were taking bets; my money's on her." He looked at her doubtfully. He knew as a cop she had to have been able to hold her own in a fight a time or two but Sam was making her out to be a badass.

She snorted, "She is. Trust me." He didn't realize until then he had spoken out loud.

He looked at her skeptically. She shrugged and continued on down the aisle, expecting him to follow. She looked forward to tomorrow; especially if she got to see Shepard without his shirt on again.

She froze at that thought.

Where had that thought come in at? She gave her head a slight shake and continued on, picking up anything she saw they needed. She didn't know where that thought came in at but it needed to disappear. After her last relationship she swore off men permanently. All they did was either bail when things got too rough or try to change you into something you weren't.

Nope, the last thing she needed was a fussy man who wanted to change her into something she wasn't and could never be.

Ben helped Sam load the car when she finished her grocery shopping and then left in his Jeep. He pulled into the vacant lot just a Pete's truck was. He got out to greet him and saw there was something on his face but he couldn't make out the details in the dark where they were standing. He shrugged it off and reached into the open driver's door and pulled out the pack of beer and bag of food from the passenger's side. He waved to the guys as he brought the beer over to the oversized cooler and dumped it into the ice. He looked around and saw the others had put the food they brought, on top of Randy's truck. He went over to it and set the bag of chicken he bought at the Wal-Mart, seeing someone had brought a bucket of KFC chicken while a couple of others brought pizza and buffalo wings from a local pizzeria. He heard rebel yells and hollers from the guys and saw Kent pull up and brought out a bag of food and a battered football that more than likely their dads had tossed around as kids. He moved away from the truck and noticed that the headlights were on. It was then he saw Pete's face in the headlights shining in the center of the lot where they would be playing. His mouth was swollen-looking and he had a hand print on the side of his cheek. Before he could ask Jesse came up to him and slapped him on the back and started to say something when he too saw the mark. His eyes widened, "Damn, Pete! You get into a fight or something!" He ignored his remark and went over to the cooler and took out a can and popped the top. He took a swallow before he said anything. "I went by Jane and Sam's new apartment earlier and saw the door was unlocked, so I went in to make sure everything was alright and I kind of caught Jane in a awkward situation." The two men looked at him expectantly. He sighed and said, "I caught her half-naked in her room, guys!" They were silent for a moment before they started howling with laughter. "You're kidding, right?" By that time all the guys were surrounding them. Several of them were trying to keep straight faces. He shook his head, "I wish, man. She caught me and started to throw me out and I did something real stupid." Mike looked at him, biting his lip to keep from laughing. "What did you do, call her fat?"

He looked at him drolly, "I said stupid, not suicidal." They all chuckled at that. He shook his head, "Naw, I kissed her." They all shut up at that. "Next thing I know, she's slapping me across the face and shoving me out the door." He grinned, and rubbed his cheek and jaw ruefully, "I think she did what they called 'bitch-slapped' me. Felt like she damn near broke my jaw, got a helluva arm on her I'll say that much!" They laughed at that, "But that ain't all, she agreed to go to the movies with me next week."

Jesse slapped him on the back while some of the guys said a few words that managed to actually bring a flush to the man's cheeks and ears. They were interrupted by Kent's loud yell, "Hey! We gonna play some ball or have a slumber party?!" They all hollered, "Yeah!" and jogged over to where Kent and the ball was and broke into three man teams.

Sam pulled the rubber band from her hair and shook the braid loose as she stepped into the shower, sighing as the warm water hit her. She was exhausted; it was one-thirty in the morning and they just got threw with painting Jane's room. Jane was crashed in her room after taking a quick shower; they would start on her room tomorrow after her doctor's appointment. She was having to meet with a physical therapist before she was clear for duty. She scrubbed her hair and soaped the wash rag she had in her hand, paying close attention to skin that was splotched with paint. She finished washing and stood under the shower head, making the suds wash down the drain in a whirl.

She pulled the shower curtain back and tossed the wash rag into the hamper near the shower and gathered her long hair to one side and wrung it out into the tub. She stepped out onto her dirty clothes and reached for the towel on the rack beside her. She wiped the water from her skin and flipped her head over and towel-dried long hair. She flipped her head back up and reached for her pajamas, and saw there was none. She had forgotten them; she wrinkled her nose at having to leave the warm bathroom to walk down the drafty hallway to her room. She sighed and wrapped the towel around her, knotting it around her chest and left the bathroom after tossing her paint-stained clothes into the hamper.

Sam walked out of the warm bathroom and walked quickly threw the drafty hallway to her bedroom. She walked into her room and went to the dresser next to the door and opened a drawer, taking out a pair of panties and slipped them on. She dragged out a pair of warm pajamas and set them on the top. She looked up at the moment and saw herself in the mirror hanging above the dresser. She let out a sigh and dropped the towel wrapped around her. She stood before the mirror in only her panties and her long hair covering her chest from view. She gently pulled her long tresses off and to one side, baring her right breast to the mirror's view. The moonlight peeked threw the blinds, bathing her fair skin in its light till she looked more sprite than woman. She looked at her image with sad eyes and traced the swell of her breast, and followed down the curve and off to the side feeling the scar there. And traced the scar upwards till she reached the still healing wound on her right shoulder. And she looked at the healing bullet wound that nearly took her life eight months ago.

_Again, thank you for the reviews. And sorry for being so late with this story; I've recently started some online classes and had to get the first week's work done._


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders; they belong to S.E. Hinton respectively. This will definitely be a short chapter; it just seemed to be a stopping point on this chapter. _

Chapter Eight

The next morning they got up and headed down to the hospital for Sam's appointment. She found she couldn't sit still the whole way to the hospital; she bounced her leg absently to the song on the radio as they stopped at a red light. She looked up at the touch on her leg and saw it was Jane, wearing an amused and concerned expression on her face. "Sam, are you okay? Listen, if you're worried about what he'll say don't. You're in perfect health and you have made a great recovery, you'll be cleared for duty." She sighed and looked out her window as the hospital came into view.

"I know, Jane. But I'm still afraid he'll say 'Sorry, your arm's too damaged, can't risk another bullet hitting you. Can't clear you.'"

They were silent the rest of the car ride to the hospital and the elevator ride to the physical therapy room. Sam went down the hall to the room while Jane waited in the waiting room.

Kent patted the man on the back as he moved to his desk on the other side of the room and picked up the folder for his next patient. The file was a little vague so all he knew was that his patient was a cop that was injured in the line of duty and had to have surgery and physical therapy to repair the damaged tendons and nerves in the arm. He sighed and set the file back down sinking into his chair. He had heard from the captain that the officer's arresting record was outstanding and he hoped he could be cleared for duty. He looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw Sam standing in the doorway. She smiled at him and walked into the room. While he had seen pictures of his dad, blood uncles and adoptive uncles, he could see some of Dallas in Sam.

But in that moment with the sunlight streaming threw the windows and shining down on her pale hair and skin, she looked like a mythical creature escaped to the mortal world.

She cleared her throat and looked at him pointedly; he found to his amazement, his cheeks grow warm underneath her gaze. He cleared his own throat and stood to meet her, "Hey, Sam. Whatcha doing here? You do know I'm working don't you?"

She nodded and unzipped her coat, "I know. I'm your next appointment," and with that she took off her coat and laid in the chair behind her. She was wearing a t-shirt, jog pants and a pair of running shoes beneath it. He looked at her with shock and surprise; finally he regained his professionalism and started the examination.

"Alright, Sam. One more and we're done." Sam gritted her teeth and pushed herself to make that last one. She reached and went back into position, breathing heavy and sweating slightly. She took a swig of water from the water bottle beside her and looked around the room. She had been so involved in the exercise she didn't even notice she and Kent were the only people left in the room. She wiped the sweat from her brow and stood up and walked over to sit in the chair in front of Kent's desk and waited quietly as he looked over the evaluation he made of her progress today.

Finally he set the folder aside and looked up at her. "Well, based on your progress today and your past appointments with your physical therapist in Savannah, I can honestly give you the green light-" She gasped and grinned at him big. She started to say something but he interrupted her. "-But." He sighed and got up from his desk and sat on the edge of it in front of her chair. He looked at her steadily that reminded her very much of Darry.

He sighed, "Sam, what I'm about to say isn't patient to therapist. But as one friend to the other. Based on the reports I've gotten from your Savannah therapist; you had to have some rather extensive surgery. Nerve and tendons were injured when that bullet hit you in the shoulder; worse than I think anyone would have thought. You were in a coma for two weeks from the blood loss and shock and you had to go through intense therapy to regain use of your hand. I'm leery of clearing you for duty." She was silent for a long time before she spoke and when she did her voice was thick with emotion.

"I know, Kent. And as one friend to another, haven't you ever wanted to do something so bad you knew nothing else in your life could come close to making you feel the way that did? Because that's what being a cop does for me, this is what I've wanted to do since I was twelve years old. And it's not just that; it's my duty to protect others."

He nodded his head, "I do, Sam. I'm currently sitting were I've wanted to be my whole life and while I wouldn't ask someone to give up a career that has been such a large part of them; this I have to suggest you walk away from." She started to protest when he held up his hand, "Let me finish. I've read over the reports and your arrest record is one of the highest in both units you were in, but I've also read the surgeon's diagnosis. Sam, if you are injured in your gun arm again, you don't just risk losing function of that hand; you risk the possibility of losing complete function of your whole arm. From shoulder down to your fingertips. You wouldn't even be able to pick up a piece of paper if that happened. Are you willing to risk that possibility? Is this duty to protect and serve, as you call it worth losing the use of your arm?"

She looked away and after a few moments of complete silence, she looked back at him. And he saw the look and attitude she must show in the field that made her so awesome at what she did.

A quiet strength and power seemed to surround her and her pale blue eyes darkened and hardened to the point they looked like blue steel as did her whole countenance.

"Yes, Dr. Curtis."

"I'm ready and I'm more than willing to take that chance. I'm a cop and I made a promise to the people of Savannah and now this city that so long as I had breath in my lungs and could hold a gun and shoot I would be one of the ones that kept them safe."

With that she stood up, grabbed her purse and coat and left without another word to him. He leaned back on the desk, stunned. But not just the fact of what she said, it was the memories she stirred up when she said them.

So determined and fierce.

Ben had said those same words eight years ago when they asked him why would sign up to join the Navy. It would seem Ben and Sam had more in common than he realized.

_**Thank you for your reviews and I am sorry for the delay.**_


	10. Notes

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders: they belong to S.E. Hinton. BUT, I have here a list of characters that are mine.

List of Character that are Mine:

**Darry's Kids**

**Maddie & Kent Curtis**

**Ponyboy's Kids**

**Peter, Annie & Wendy Curtis**

**Sodapop's Kids**

**Naomi & Patricia Curtis**

_**Steve's Family**_

_**Meg, Mike, Julie & Candi Randle**_

**__**

_Two-Bit's Family_

_Lan, Sol, & Jesse Mathews_

Tim's Family

Lynnie & Ben Shepard

_**Jane, Sam & Al's Mothers**_

_**Val & Kate Miller**_

****

_**Jane Cade**_

_**Sam & Al Winston**_

****

_**Sam, Al, & Jane's adoptive sister & aunt**_

_**Randi & Brooke Lewis**_

****

_Cherry & Randy's kids_

_Randy & Edie Adderson_

Again, thank you for your reviews. I'm currently working on Ch. 9 and hopefully will be finished with it soon (knock wood.) Now I'm in need of some advice- Ben is in the Navy but, what kind of career outside of the Navy is fitting for him? I've tossed around a few ideas but they haven't panned out. Any suggestions?


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Nine

Jane was pulling away from the parking lot and was going down the road before she asked Sam how the evaluation went. When she didn't answer she left her to her own thoughts as they drove back to the apartment. They didn't talk as they changed into a old shirt and jeans and began to paint Sam's room.

It wasn't until lunch time and they stopped for a break did Jane decide to broach what went on this morning again. She swallowed a bite of her sandwich before she spoke, "Sam, you never did say how the evaluation went, are you okay or not?" At first, she thought she wouldn't talk about it, but she finally set down her sandwich and looked her in the eye. And what Jane saw there actually scared her; Sam was scared.

Not just a little fear, but pure terror. Sam was afraid about what the results to her evaluation had been.

"I have the green light, Jane. But, Kent said-" she stopped. She took another bite of her sandwich, swallowing against the lump that seemed to appear in the middle of her throat. "He said that maybe I should walk away from it. That the damage done to my shoulder if I took another hit I might lose function of my whole arm."

Jane looked at her, horrified. Why did she never tell her?

The thought no sooner crossed her mind she remembered her own secrets and her reasons why they would never see the light of day.

Sam might have kept this to herself for that reason. It was her burden to carry and her secret to keep for her reasons only.

She nodded silently and went back to eating her lunch. Sam was relived and surprised at the same time that Jane didn't push the subject further than she did. But Jane carried shadows in her eyes that Sam knew hid her secrets and she knew a couple was hidden for one sole reason: shame.

Shame that kept her quiet and unbending when asked to let someone in.

They finished their lunch in silence and finished painting the room and before they knew it, it was time to meet Ben down at the Y. They quickly changed into workout clothes and packed a change of clothes in a sports bag before heading out.

Ben was getting out of his uncle's car when he heard a engine roaring down the road and pull up beside him in the parking lot. He looked at the blue mustang warily til he saw Sam and Jane get out of it. He heard someone say that Jane owned a mustang but didn't really think about it til right now. He had to admit it was sharp-lookin'.

They both pulled a bag out of the backseat before walking up to him. He saw Sam was wearing a black jog suit as she walked up to him. She smiled at him and gestured to a petite, dark-haired woman that could only be Jane. And he realized his father and the guys were right-she was a feminine version of Johnny Cade.

"Ben this is my cousin, Jane."

"Jane, this is Ben Shepard." Her dark eyes flashed with amusement as she shook his hand, "Ben Shepard? As in Tim Shepard's son? The Ben Shepard you got accidentally arrested?"

To his surprise he saw a pink blush grace Sam's cheeks at her comment. She looked even prettier when she blushed, he thought.

She lightly nudged her, "Yes, that Ben Shepard. Now drop the subject; I just now got the man to forgive me for the whole mess."

He chuckled and shook his head and led the way to the Y's front doors and they went in. He was walking toward the locker rooms when he realized they weren't behind him. He turned and saw they were still standing near the front desk, staring at whole of it in amazement and surprise. He chuckled and saw Sam heard it and scowled at him as she and her cousin walked toward him. "I thought you said we were going to the Y, not the Hilton."

He chuckled and looked around the hallway as they entered the gym doors to the left; it was alittle imposing at first. He raised his voice slightly to be heard over the sound of basketballs hitting the floors and teenage cheers when one hit the basket hoop.

"About two or three years ago, an anonymous benefactor donated a lot of money and a ton of new sports equipment and weights to the place. They remodeled the whole place and bought new equipment and even had a few classes brought in." He gestured to the right side of the gym, "Over there is the men's locker room and showers. And over there," he gestured to the left side, "is the women's locker and showers. There's probably a woman in there and she'll give you a key for a temporary locker today to store your stuff in." He looked at the clock on the far wall and saw Maddie and the rest of the gang would be here in the next ten minutes. "Maddie and everyone should be here in the next ten minutes, so you girls find a locker and I'll meet you outside the locker room." They nodded and they went off to the locker rooms.

Jane took the key the woman gave her and opened the locker and checked to make sure no one else's stuff was in it. When she didn't see anything in it she took her bag off her shoulder and started to store it when it slammed closed and a loud female voice say, "What the hell you think you doin' here, Soc? This is our place; now get the hell out of here!"

She turned her head and her long drape of hair parted for her to see a woman of average height and build standing there, bristling with anger. Despite it being the middle of winter, she wore a low-cut halter top and tight short gym shorts that didn't leave much to the imagination. Jane had a feeling she was looking at an authentic Greaser girl.

She arched a brow at her comment. "Honey, the last time I checked I'm a Greaser on both sides don't be insultin' me." She brushed past the woman and went to look in the mirror as she pulled her longish hair back into a tight bun at the back of her head. She was coming back to the lockers when she was shoved from behind. She didn't think, just reacted; quicker than you could blink she had the woman pinned to wall and her hands pulled behind her back. She saw it was the same woman from earlier. She felt her temper begin to heat as she saw the woman sneer at her and two other women come up that were obviously her friends. She pulled the woman from the wall and slammed her into the lockers.

"I'm gonna tell ya this just once, chick. Don't touch me. And if ya smart ya'll pretend not ta know me after today. Got it?"

Though Jane hadn't lived in New York since she was eleven, she held to her New York roots with certain words and phrases and for the most part had a Savannah drawl like her mothers. But when she was real good and mad her old Brooklyn accent came out full force, like it was right now.

"Any problems here, Janie?"

She glanced over her shoulder and saw Sam standing there, though her voice was calm and normal, her expression and body posture wasn't. Her eyes took on a hard sheen to them that made them look like twin pieces of ice and her body language said she was ready to fight.

"No problems, Sam. Just letting the nice lady know were I stand." She leaned back out of the woman's personal space and walked away.

Sam hid the smirk that twisted her lips as she saw Jane walk away, taking her jacket off as she went, giving the woman a clear view of not just her back but the tattoos on her exposed shoulder and the small of her back where her shirt rode up in the back. One of the women paled when she saw the vague tattoo of the dragon on Jane's back, she turned and smiled at the women. "I see your out to make friends with my sister. Word of advice, never come at her from the back, she was trained to attack, and attack hard whenever someone comes at her back. And she won't be nice like she was today." The smiled disappeared from her face and she leaned in close to all three women cowered against the lockers. "Stay away from her, or next time you deal with me. And I for damn sure won't be nice when I kick your ass to the West Side and back. Got it?"

They nodded meekly.

"Good. Now go."

They scrambled to the door and out into the gym. She didn't let out the breath she had been holding til they were out of sight. She started down the hallway and saw Maddie, Bri, and a young teenager holding a video camera; looking at her in surprise. She shrugged her shoulders casually and said, "They were bothering Jane. I did what any sister would: threaten them."

They were silent for a whole second before they busted out laughing. She laughed with them and talked with them while they changed.

It turns out Candi, who was Steve's youngest, was filming today's outing for her film class, she thought what happened with Sam and Jane in the locker room would be awesome to put on her project video.

Jane stood outside the women's locker room, trying to cool her temper without giving into the temptation to go back in there and finished what the woman started. She heard the sound of running feet behind her and turned to see the same women from earlier tear out of the locker room like bats out of hell. They glanced over at her, she arched a brow and they went tearing out of the gym at top speed. She breathed a silent sigh of relief. She was glad they didn't try and finish what they started. The last time she was in a fight she had to be pulled off her opponent.

She sighed and looked down at her hands, the last few months she had to really fight to control her temper. To be honest, it terrified her how she went from calm and cool to hot-tempered and nearly out of control.

"Hey, Jane! Ready for me to wipe the floor with ya?" She looked up and saw Randi coming to her.

_She must have a tracking device on us_, she thought.

Randi always seemed to know where they were and if they needed her. She talked with her for a few minutes before she heard a deep male voice come up behind her, "Nice tattoo, what does the words mean?" She turned around and was about to blast the idiot when she saw it was Pete. She decided to hold on blasting him; she might want to really blast him after their date at the movies next week. She couldn't figure out for the life of her why she said yes when he asked her out.

She mentally rolled her eyes; _"I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment,"_ she thought

She nearly jerked out of her skin when he ran his fingertips lightly over the etchings of the tattoo on her left shoulder. But instead of wanting to jerk away like she normally would when someone touched her; she had to fight the urge to lean into his touch.

Thankfully, Randi stepped in and spoke, "Oh, it's something the four of us got; our way of saying we'll always have one another's back." He looked up and nodded, "Yeah, but what does it mean? I don't recognize the words, is it a foreign language?"

Jane finally made herself move away from his caressing fingertips. But the look in his eyes made her flush. And quite frankly made her mad; she was twenty-five years old and she was blushing like a young teenager.

"It means 'Family Is Everything'. All four of us have the saying tattooed on the back of our left shoulders." All three looked up at the voice and saw it was Sam with Maddie, Bri and a young teenager that resembled Mike coming up behind her. The girl had a video camera in her hand and was filming them even then as they walked up to them. She heard her talking, "Okay, we are now in the gym at the Y and I am getting to met one of my dad's childhood friend's daughter, Jane. Say Hi Jane!"

She grinned at her and said, "Hi, Jane." She shook her head and heard Sam and a redhead woman laugh and say, "Smart aleck." She smiled and said, "I try."

Sam was about to say something else when she saw Ben, Kent and Jesse coming up to them in the direction of the men's locker room. She looked at Ben with surprise; he wore a pair of basketball shorts and a shirt that said, _Proud to be a S.E.A.L._ on the front in bold letters. He walked up to her and she said, "I didn't know you were a SEAL." He shrugged, "I thought you did." He narrowed his eyes at her slightly. "Does that bother you?" She shook her head, "Not at all, matter a fact, our Granddad Miller was a SEAL once upon a time." With the exception of Jane and Randi they all looked at her in surprise; Maddie spoke up, "Really? Your granddad served in the Navy?" She nodded, "Yeah, served in Vietnam as a sniper for his unit." She smiled at them as a whole. "How do you think our moms knew your dads and everything? Our granddad and Mr. Curtis served together and kept in touch over the years."

By then everyone had showed up and they began to walk to door that led to the spacious workout room as they talked. Ben walked beside Sam and looked over at her, "So your granddad really served in Vietnam with Mr. Curtis?" She nodded, "Yeah, Mom said her Dad, Mr. Curtis and Mr. Lewis all served together in 'Nam."

He looked at her puzzled, "Randi's grandfather served with them as well, it turns out our moms knew one another as kids but lost touch over the years til Aunt Brooke moved down to Georgia after her divorce," she added.

She smiled at him, "The weird thing is all three served as snipers in their unit. Mom said he was a helluva shooter." He looked at her oddly and she caught the look and elaborated, "Grandad taught Mom and Aunt Val how to shoot when they were kids and when they got older he taught them how to fire a gun in self-defense."

"Aunt Val said Mom was a natural with a gun; that's where Al and me get it from." He looked at her with surprise; "I didn't know you had a brother."

She nodded, "My twin brother; he's about twenty minutes younger than Jane and me. Yeah, we're the first twins in my mom's family that are fraternal, they usually were identical."

"Yep, and Randi is damn good with a gun. Her parents used to take her hunting in the bayou before they divorced and they moved down here." He looked at her suspiciously; "Just how good are you and your brother? And how good is she with a gun?" She grinned widely, "She's good enough that she was accepted on the S.W.A.T team right after her eighteenth birthday. That's what she did in Savannah; then she decided to go with Jane to Missing Persons."

She headed over to a treadmill and punched in the length she wanted while she talked to him, "As for how good Al and me are; well, Al is alright with a gun but since Shelby came along he doesn't practice as much and I have the same training with rifles as Randi does." He arched a brow at that; he wouldn't peg her for the sniper type, or the redhead for that matter. He wondered just what else is there about her. "I didn't peg you for the sniper type, what else is do you got up your sleeve." She frowned and looked up the sleeves of her jacket and looked back at him, "Nothing."

He laughed at her joke and she smiled at him before nodding, "I get what you're saying, I'll let you in on something most people outside my family knows about me. I have a degree in architecture." His eyes widened in surprise and she couldn't help but laugh. She knew cause of her looks most people thought she would have done something with fashion or something. Truth was she would have been happy to wear jeans and t-shirts all the time; too bad when she made detective she had to buy dress suits. She was busy with her thoughts she didn't notice the look Ben was giving her.

He gazed at her as he sat down on the weight bench and realized something; he had found her attractive earlier cause of her appearance. But know that he knew there was more than just a pretty face and great legs; he found he was attracted to more than the surface. Which could be bad-he would be leaving to go back to Oklahoma City at the end of next week. Last thing either of them needed was a long-distance relationship.

They all were in the gym for about twenty minutes when Jane decided to see if there was any one over by the mats that needed a sparring partner. She was about to turn away when she heard a familiar voice say, "I'll take ya on."

She grinned and turned around to see Sam standing before her, a equally goofy grin on her face. She composed her face into a cool expression, but couldn't hide the twinkle in her dark eyes. She nodded and went to the center of the mats with Sam not far behind her. They stood facing one another and bowed to one another and took up a fighting stance. Sam struck fast, aiming for Jane's chest; a good hard blow there could wind a person good. But Jane anticipated it and blocked the blow and gave one of her own. Sam twisted away and flipped out of hitting range, and landed silently on her feet. She took up a fighting stance and smirked at Jane, and crooked her finger at her. Jane grinned at her and went at her.

Candi watched behind her video camera in awe. She saw Jane and Sam sparring and it was amazing how well they fought. They moved so gracefully and smoothly it was almost like watching a dance. She had noticed them moving over to the mats and decided to film them practicing and was she glad she did now.

Her teacher would freak when he saw her video with Jane and Sam fighting on it. She heard people stand beside her and heard Pete breath, "God, their good! I've never seen anybody move like that." She silently nodded and heard the rest of them agree. She heard the redhead-Randi she thought was her name-say, "What do you expect, Jane is a black belt in just about everything and she taught Sam well." She snorted, "Hell, she taught us all well."

She heard Jesse speak up, "What are you talking about, Red?" She silently groaned at the use of a nickname that the woman no doubt ably didn't care for. But she led it slide and she heard her say, "Ya'll don't know do you? Jane has been in karate, kung fu, all that stuff since she was twelve. She's one of Savannah's leading martial arts instructors. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if she knew every kind of martial arts there is. And probably a few that hadn't come to light yet." They fell silent when they saw Jane crouched and used her leg with a smooth motion that would have knocked Sam off her feet if she hadn't backflipped out of her way. That was when they seriously started sparring. A mask of concentration came over their faces as they continued to move and their moves were so quick and efficient it was no wonder those six Socs, though bigger and no doubt stronger than them, had their asses handed to them.

And unbelievably Candi saw them do a couple of moves that looked like they were straight out of a movie with Jane landing a foot away from the swords rack on a far wall. She waggled her eyebrows at Sam who grinned at her, and she kicked off her shoes and pulled the rubber band from her hair shaking it loose and used it to knot her shirt where it was tight against her and her midriff was showing and Sam followed suit. And when she turned to grab a sword from the rack, her tattoos were clearly showing on her shoulder and lower back. Candi zoomed in on the tattoo on her back and was stunned at the detail work of it. It showed a red dragon, fierce and proud-looking holding a shield with symbols and colorful with a foreign word intertwined with the feathers on the shield. She heard someone come up to her and heard the voice that she recognized to be Randi. "Dragons are considered a guardian, and are considered fierce protectors. Those symbols and colors you see on the shield are considered sacred Cherokee and Wicca symbols of protection. My mother told her the Wicca symbols would protect her in battle. Jane choose the Cherokee ones because of her heritage, the word you see means 'Warrior' in the old language."

It was then Candi realized just how different Jane was from the rest of them. And then she saw Sam began to move and saw the blade of the sword move and she engaged in a mock fight with Jane. Maybe they both were alittle different from them.

Jane faced off with Sam and grabbed the dull sword from the shelf on the wall and walked to the mat. She twirled the sword loosely in her hand and saw Sam do the same. She attacked first and Jane parried her thrust with ease, and soon they both became so involved in the mock fight they forgot they had a audience.

Ben looked the fight with amazement; it was almost like watching a dance. They moved so fluently and with grace, and they were so in sync they seemed to be able to anticipate the other's next move.

"Impressive aren't they?"

He turned his head to see the redhead from a few days ago. Randi, he thought was her name. He nodded slowly; he had never seen something like this, not in his unit or in his travels. And if he was honest with himself, he would say he found it rather arousing to see a woman not only beautiful but smart and lethal with a weapon. He knew then if he stayed around Sam much, she would have him wrapped around her little finger. And he wouldn't give a damn whatsoever.


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Outsiders; they belong to S.E. Hinton respectively. _

* * *

Chapter Ten

Jane was up the next morning, and was dressed and ready when Sam came out of the kitchen with a egg biscuit for them both and they were eating it as they walked out the door. They ate on the way to the station and before they got out they used a toothbrush they both kept in the car.

Sam looked over at Jane and saw her hide her own nerves at their first day on the job and they walked into the station and were directed to their new units.

Jane calmed the butterflies in her stomach and took a deep cleansing breath for courage as she knocked on the door to her new Captain's office. A man with dark-chocolate colored skin looked up at her knock and gestured her in. He was sitting down in front of a desk but stood at her entrance. And it was all she could do not to drop her jaw in shock. He had to be nearly Darry's age or older but was as muscular as a younger man, and he was quite possibly the tallest man she had ever seen. While her brother was 6-foot-4 this man had to be every bit of six-foot-eight and carried it well. She was shook out of her reverie when he moved around the desk-a desk she didn't know how he managed to sit at in the first place- to shake her hand. "Your Lieutenant Jane Cade I presume?" She regained her composure and nodded, "Yes sir. You're Captain O'Connell?"

She didn't know why but when she heard his name she expected a big, burly Irishman with a head of hair as red as Randi's.

Well it looked like she was half right.

He grinned at her and took her hand in a firm grip, "Yeah, most are offset by the name. But I like my guys to be comfortable so when none of the big wigs around you can call me Alan."

He took her in with a steady gaze that she returned with equal steadiness. She saw a spark of respect enter his dark eyes and knew she earned herself a notch higher on her captain's chain of line by returning his gaze.

He let go of her hand and looked at her face and said, "Your dad was Italian wasn't he?" She frowned at that; most people took one look at her dark hair, eyes and skin and automatically assume she was full-blooded Indian.

She nodded slowly, "Half. The other half was Mexican, my mother is a quarter Cherokee."

He nodded, "Yeah, Johnny Cade knew what he was doing when he set his sights on Val." Her eyes widened, "You knew my parents?"

He nodded.

"I was one of the few black kids that lived on the East Side. I saw your parents sneak out to be together when they didn't think anyone was watching."

He shook his head, "Your Granddaddy was a mean sonofabitch when it came to that boy I'll say that much." She nodded her head, "My mom told me about Dad's home life when I got old enough to understand why he wasn't with us and how he was to Dad."

She shook her head, "Yeah, I would have loved to met the bastard in a dark alley off-duty." He nodded and leaned back to met her somewhat at eye level.

"Well, I will admit I'm albeit reluctant to take you on, Cade. You were a damn good cop and a damn fine detective in Savannah. But I wonder how you'll do here in Tulsa. Tulsa has it's own little gang war going on that has been going on since my parents were teenagers. Socs and Greasers have been at each other's throats for a long time. You're a Greaser cop who will be taking on both sides; do you think you can handle it?" She was quiet for a moment before she answered, "I know you're trying to get me to understand that I will be prejudiced against because my parents had the bad luck to be born on the wrong side of the tracks. But you don't have to. I know where I come from and I hold my head high because I'm proud of who I am. And if I'm being blackballed because I'm poor then I count my blessings." He looked confused at what she was saying. She took a breath before continuing.

"What you see, how I look, I've looked like this since I was born. The minute I opened my eyes my mother said I was the spitting image of my Daddy. And as I got older people realized I didn't look like other little girls. Some who thought I was Mexican called me a 'wetback'. Others who saw I had some Indian in me called me a 'half-breed slut' because my Grandmother made a bad move in marrying a half-Indian man.

And others who were just prejudiced against me because I didn't fit your average girl look, called me a 'Eye-talian' or for the life of me I have till yet figured out why I've been called this, a 'zebra'."

She shook her head, "No, Captain. Unfairness and bigotry are nothing new to me. I took an oath to protect the people of Savannah and now I'm taking an oath to protect the people of Tulsa. Do you think I'm good enough to get the job done?"

He stood there looking at her for a moment before he did anything. And then he stood to his full impressive height and walked over to where Jane was sitting in one of the chairs against the wall. He stuck his hand out to her and said, "Welcome to your new unit, Lieutenant. I hope you're as good as your superiors say you are."

It took a moment for it to register what he said but when it did she grinned up at him and shook his offered hand and said, "I am as good as they say I am. Why do you think half of Savannah P.D. called me 'G.I. Jane'?" He threw his head back and roared with laughter and walked over to the door and opened it and she followed out after him as he called the squad room to attention to meet a new member of their unit.

* * *

Sam took deep even breaths to calm the nerves in her stomach as she walked to her new captain's office. She knocked on the open door and a brown-haired woman looked up at her knock. She gestured her inside and she shut the door behind her, and saw when she got closer the woman could have been a dead ringer for Mariska Hargitay. She smiled at her and stood to shake her hand and saw she was about the same height as her. She gestured for her to sit and she took a chair right by the desk.

"Detective Winston, I'm Captain Jones. But I ask my guys to call me Meredith. I've heard good things about you from your superiors in Savannah. I look forward to adding you to my unit. And I heard you're pretty decent in a fight."

She nodded, "Yes, ma'am. I had a cousin that is a self-defense instructor; she taught me all I know about fighting with my hands."

She nodded, "And I take you didn't get any of your fighting instincts from your dad." She cocked her head at her; she nodded at the unspoken question.

"I know your dad, Sam. You and him are the only people I've ever met to have those eyes. Their hard to forget." She sat down on the edge of the desk where she was nearly face to face with her.

"Plus, my partner knew your father quite well before we met." Her eyes nearly popped out of her head at the casualness in the woman's voice at speaking of her personal life. But she didn't who she was talking about. Her mom had told her before her dad and her had gotten together, Dad had been abeit of a hound dog.

She looked at her with a straight-face. "Your going to have to be more specific, Meredith. My daddy put the term 'hound dog' to shame before him and my mom got together." She laughed and nodded her head, "You got that right. He definitely liked the ladies. I'm talking about Sylvia Taylor."

This time Sam didn't bother hiding her shock, her jaw nearly dropped on to her chest. She sat there looking at her for a full minute before she spoke, "Sylvia? As in the Sylvia that chased after my dad while my parents still dated?"

She nodded, "They dated on and off for several months after the Miller twins left. Sylvia said one time she thought the only reason he dated her was because he wanted to forget Kate, and she was the opposite of what Kate was." She shrugged her shoulders and continued, "And after he died she stopped pretending she was interested in men. We've been together since then." She waved her hand, "But enough of that. I'm interested in what you're capable of; you worked in homicide after you made detective and it was on a case you were injured on that led to your captain splitting up you and your partner into different units."

She reached back and picked a folder off the desk and opened it up. She briefly scanned the contents before speaking. "According to the file here, you were sent to Cold Cases while your partner was sent to Missing Persons."

She nodded, "Yes, Captain." She glanced back down at the file then back at her. "I'm under the understanding that the events that led to your injury are still considered confidential. Nearly a year after the fact."

"Just what the hell happened up on that mountain that the case you worked is still confidential a year after it happened?"

"Because while I'm going to add you on; I want to make sure history doesn't repeat itself." Sam looked at her and for the first time she wished she could tell what happened. But even if she wasn't bound by confidentiality; she couldn't tell anyone what happened. Jane was the only one that could tell what happened up on that mountain and that was one thing she never planned to tell.

* * *

Randi stepped out of her motel room and shut the door behind her. She walked down the street to the diner called the Dingo and saw a couple of the kids from the Curtis house sitting on the hoods of their friend's car and waved to them. They waved back and went back to eating, she glanced down at her watch and figured their lunch period was about to be over. She walked in and heard a bell tinkle over head, she saw the lunch rush was drawing to a close and only a couple of kids and one or two construction workers was sitting in the diner.

She walked over to the counter and took a seat in a bar chair and looked over the menu sitting in a holder on the counter. She was looking over the lunch menu when she heard footsteps in her direction and heard a man clear his throat. She looked up and saw a man stood on the other side of the counter. And was startled by the resemblance between him and Ben, they weren't identical, but their features were close enough they had to be related. He had to be Darry's height or a little taller and was every bit as muscular as him. He was dark hair and his eyes were such a dark blue they looked black. He grinned at her and spoke, "Hi. Name's Curly, whatcha want to eat?"

She knew who he was now, he was Curly Shepard; she remembered Aunt Kate and Val talking about the Shepard brothers a couple of times while she was growing up. She shook herself out of her reverie when she saw he was still waiting. "Oh, I'll have a cheeseburger with fries and a glass of water." He nodded and brought her water out to her and went to the back and she heard the sound of meat sizzling on the grill. In a few minutes he was back with her order with her gaping at him. He had to be the fastest fry cook she ever had wait on her. He chuckled and set the plate down on the counter in front of her. She took a hesitant bite of the burger and was surprised at the flavor that bursted in her mouth. She didn't even reach for the hot sauce; she had the food inhaled before she realized she was done. He grinned proudly at her, "I'll take your food's disappearing act as a compliment." She started to take a sip of water when she realized she forgot to take her vitamins. She silently groaned and took her little pill box out of her jacket pocket and took out a couple of the tablets and tossed her head back and washed them down with a gulp of water. She grimaced at the bitter taste. She should really try that jelly method her friend told her about. She saw Curly suppress a smile at her face and she shook the little box, "My pre-natal vitamins. These things have got to be the nastiest things I've ever had to take."

He laughed and leaned on the counter, "So you're Randi. I heard Ben talk about you, said you made quite an impression on the younger Curtis gang."

"Especially Jesse." She made a face at the mention of the cocky over-confident gray-eyed man. But she was saved from saying anything when she heard the doorbell tingle again. She finished her water and got up from her seat to stand over to the cash register. She was a few inches away when she heard a female voice that sounded vaguely familiar.

"Well, I'll be! If it isn't little Serena Deveraux and this far from New Orleans at that!"  
She froze at the mention of a name she hadn't answered to in nearly fifteen years. She hesitantly turned around to see who the caller was and was struck dumb at who it was.

She had grown up and was dressed in clothes that screamed money instead of poor city girl, but it was her: Marie Beaumont.

She walked up to her and she saw her smile at her. Only it wasn't a pleasant smile, it was more a smirk than a smile. She looked her over from the top of her redhead to her leather biker boots.

Her smirk took on a mean look and she said in a fake concern voice, "Why, Serena what ever happened to your Mama and you after you left New Orleans? I heard your daddy died a few years ago, I'm so sorry about his passing." Despite herself, she felt tears burn behind her eyes at the mention of her father.

She made a point to forget him as much as she could over the years, and here stood before her was another reminder of him and the life her mother and her made a point to forget about. She spoke softly, "Thanks, Marie. Yeah, it was very sudden. I hadn't heard from him in years when I heard he died of an accident. It was very quick."

She turned back to Curly at the cash register and gave him the money and waited for her change. She had her back to her when she spoke again in that fake voice of hers that was beginning to annoy her.

"Really, I heard he died of a drug overdose or alcohol poisoning. I mean, that's all he did after you and your mom left was drink and pop pills."

Randi stiffened at the audacity the woman had to say that. She set her hands on the counter in front of her to keep from showing Marie how much her words affected her. She glanced up at Curly and was surprised at the muscle ticking in his jaw as he glared daggers at Marie. And she got the impression she was getting a glimpse of the Curly that had roamed the streets of Tulsa with his older brother by his side and raised hell everywhere they went.

Marie didn't bother to hide the smirk or the mean glint in her eyes now. "Oh, that's right. You and your mom left in the dead of night and never looked back or let anyone know where you were. I guess my mom was right when she said your mother was nothing but snobby rich bitch who thought she was above everyone in New Orleans because her family had money."

She slowly turned around and she could feel the anger flooding her and filing her with adrenaline. She looked at the smaller woman and spoke in a calm voice despite her anger. "Marie. I thought when I first saw you, you had grown up. But I see you're still the little girl that has to cut other people down with your words to make yourself feel good."

"And I'm going to tell you something; my mother didn't want me around your house because your mom had strange men coming and going all the time and she didn't want me around that and if she could have she would have you stay with us, but she couldn't. And if anyone is the bitch, Marie. It's you." She turned back around with her back facing her while Marie sputtered for a comeback.

Finally she spoke, "Well, at least my mother didn't get pregnant when she was fifteen and was too stupid to realize her husband was keeping half the hookers in New Orleans in leather and heels!"

She dug her nails into the counter and took a shaky breath before she looked up at an agitated Curly and spoke where only he could hear her, "How fond are the police of you, Shepard?"

He looked at her and gave a ghost of a smile. "They like me real well." She gave a devious grin, "Then they'll going to love you when I'm done."

And before he could blink she spun around and socked the woman right in the nose. Marie let out a frightened scream and stumbled back and fell against a chair, holding her bloody nose. She looked up at Randi with frightened eyes, Randi stood over her with her hands fisted at her sides. "In case you haven't notice, I'm not Serena Deveraux any more, Marie."

"I changed."

"I grew up."

"I'm Randi Lewis now. But you haven't changed, your still poor little Marie whose mama slept with so many men she to this day doesn't know who her kid's father is."

She turned back to Curly and picked up her purse sitting on the counter and started for the door when she felt someone jerk on her jacket. She turned and barely caught Marie's fist as it tried to make contact with her face.

But she didn't see the other one that caught her in the mouth. She glared at her and hit her hard. She watched her stumble back. She looked at her and growled, "Don't make me hurt you, Marie. I'm not that same sweet little girl I once was, I'm not afraid to kick your ass all the way to New Orleans and back and laugh while I do it."

She lunged at Randi and this time she didn't hold back. She grabbed her swinging arm and yanked it hard behind her back and pinned her up against the glass window behind them. She leaned in close and said, "I'm going to let you go now, Marie. And when I do, I suggest you get into your car and go back to your home. Because if you push me any further, you're going to find out first hand why only two people have been able to take me in a fight since I joined the force." She let go of her and the woman stumbled to the door and went out it. She stood there, breathing hard trying to get her temper back under control. She silently berated herself for letting Marie push her buttons. Bad-mouthin' her parents had always been a button pusher for her. She felt a hand come down on her shoulder and she spun around and struck.

To her surprise, Curly caught her hand in one of his with surprising ease. He looked at her calmly, "You gonna keep fightin or you gonna let me tend to that fat lip she gave you?"

It was all she could do not to drop her jaw in shock. Her parents may not have come from here, but over the years hearing Aunt Val and Kate talking about the Curtis and Shepard's and the kids around here known as Greasers and Socs, she couldn't help but feel like she knew them too.

So when Curly Shepard was offering to tend to her split lip, it did more than shock her. It made her suspicious. Especially when it was just the two of them in here now that the lunch rush was over. Her expression must have given her away because he released her hand and gentled his tone, "I'm just trying to offer up some help." She watched him warily as he went behind the counter and bent down to get something.

She instinctively put her hand to her side, but found her belt empty of a holster and gun. She balled her fist and made an effort to make herself appear relaxed when he reappeared. He came out with a small metal box with a red cross on the top. He gestured for her to sit in the bar chair she was at earlier and a moment she reluctantly walked over to it and sat down.

He moved over to where she sat and brought the first aid kit with him, sitting it on the bar top. He took out a couple of cotton swabs and a bottle of peroxide. She watched him unscrew the cap and douse a cotton swab and took her hand in his and lightly cleaned her scraped knuckles. She flinched but didn't make a sound as the liquid hissed at the contact of the scrapes. He reached up and tossed it in the garbage can behind the counter and doused the second one with the burning liquid and gently tabbed her cut lip, she flinched and leaned her head back at the burning sensation at the liquid. "So, mind me askin what made you deck Marie Sheldon in my diner?" She looked at him puzzled.

"When I knew her she was Marie Beaumont. Who'd she marry or better yet, who became her sugar daddy?"

He chuckled and closed the first aid kit, "She married old man Sheldon. His wife offed herself a few years ago, and from what I heard she was their maid and so well, you know that old song." She nodded and laughed cynically, "Yeah, I know that old song. Man heartbroken over wife dying. See's a young, attractive maid and decides to take her up on her offer. And now the poor bastard has to hear Marie's whining everyday." He shook his head and laughed. "Sounds like you got her pegged pretty good. How'd you guys know one another?" She shrugged and looked around the room before answering.

"We grew up together in New Orleans. Her mom and her were considered from the wrong side of town back in New Orleans. My parents were…." She gestured, unable to think the right word. He looked at her hard. "They were Socs weren't they?" She nodded. "Kind of, back in New Orleans they were kind of split, backwoods Cajuns and stiff-lipped Creoles. My dad was a Creole and my mom is Cajun/Creole.

My parents had money, but Marie couldn't be farther from the truth about my mom being stuck-up and snobby." She looked at him then. "My mother is one of the sweetest, most giving women I've ever met outside of my Granny Seren and Aunt Val and Kate.

I was ten years old at the time of my parent's divorce; I couldn't work to help her, so she had to work whatever she could to keep us fed, which usually was cleaning up someone else's crap." She got up from the chair grabbing her purse and started for the door when she stopped and turned back around to face him.

"You wanna know why I lost my temper and hit Marie? She went too far with my parents, my parents might have got pregnant when my mom was fifteen and my dad was eighteen, but they raised me to the best of their ability since my Grandmére threw Mama out and told her never to come back and had no other help outside of my great-grandmother." She looked down and said softly, "It just rubs me the wrong way when I hear someone talk about my mom like that. Especially since she could have dropped me when things got too rough for her but didn't. And when she left my dad and took only the clothes on her back and me, she had no financial help because Marie was half-right, my dad was a good man till I was seven, then after that he would drink himself into unconsciousness every day till my mom took me and ran to the first safe place she could think of." She shook her head, and rested her hand on her flat stomach. "My mom was the best mother I could ask for. She has a strength inside her that has never since to amaze me. I only hope I could live up to the kind of woman and mother she is."

And with that she left and Curly Shepard discovered like the rest of them that had met Randi, there was something about her that made her stand out from other women.

* * *

_Thank you for the reviews and for being so patient for this chapter. I will try to get the chapters out as fast as I can but with finals just around the corner and Christmas, I can't make any guarantees. But I can certainly try!_


	13. Chapter 13

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or characters that are not my own. They belong to S.E. Hinton and their respective owners. _

* * *

Chapter Eleven

Later that night Randi decided to leave her room and walk over to Sam and Jane's apartment. She knew she shouldn't be out walking, but she needed to clear her head and figure out what was her next plan of action. She couldn't go back to working with SWAT or Missing Persons till she had the baby. She touched her hand to her still flat stomach; her friend at the clinic should be calling her tomorrow or the next day. She only hoped Lexie wouldn't get in any trouble with her boss, she had no idea how much it meant to her to try and get information on the donor.

She looked up at the sky and took a deep breath of the cool night air and looked around her. She had her culinary degree to fall back on, but opening a restaurant like her Aunt Val didn't hold any true appeal to her.

But maybe she could consider opening a bakery, she thought. Mikey had enjoyed his last birthday cake were it looked like a 3-d cowboy. And she had actually baked the groom's cake at a friend's wedding a couple of years ago. She nodded silently to herself, _"Maybe I should consider that; I mean I always said if I had kids I would quit the force and see about putting that degree of mine to good use."_

She was drawn from her thoughts by the sound a loud engine roaring up the street. She went on alert and discreetly checked her jacket, feeling the reassuring weight of her Beretta in her hand. She went through a mental checklist of her weapons on her and possible escape routes should she need to run. Which she had a bad feeling she was going to have to soon and fast. She looked around the neighborhood and pretended she was oblivious to the Jag that was tailing her. She kept walking even when she heard the engine shut off and heard the sound of feet hitting pavement and walking in her direction. It wasn't until she heard them call out to her did she turn around.

"Hey, Greaser! Hey, Baby what are you doing out here all by yourself?" She turned fully around and the boys stopped suddenly at the full look of her. One of them breathed to another one, "God she's pretty! I didn't know Greasers bred'em so good." She heard several more murmurs of agreement before the apparent leader came up to her. He stood so close she could smell the expensive cologne on his skin and clothes.

And the bourbon on his breath.

Just like her father.

For a moment she felt herself go back to the scared little girl she was when her father came staggering home with the smell of bourbon strong on his breath….

She gave herself a mental shake.

No.

She was not that same little girl who cringed at the sound of heavy footsteps coming her way; she squared her shoulders and looked him over from head to expensively shod toe. He obviously thought her looking him over as a compliment. He puffed his chest out and swayed a little closer to her, not noticing her nose slightly wrinkled up from the smell of the liquor on his breath; he might have been attractive to her if he wasn't noticeably swaying on his feet and smelt strongly of liquor.

He leaned in close and slurred out, "Hey, baby. You're pretty. How about showing me what you got under that jacket of yours?"

She refrained from rolling her eyes, but that didn't stop an idea coming to mind. She leaned in to him a little closer and smiled seductively at him.

"Hmm, sure honey. I'll show you what I got under here," she said in a breathy voice. She saw a glint of something in the guy's alcohol-induced glazed eyes. Before any of them could move, she had her jacket opened and her Beretta pointed at the drunk.

She smiled wickedly at him, "You like? I have another one on me if you don't like my Beretta."

It took the man a minute to realize he had a gun pointed at his head; it took a minute longer for his cronies to realize it too. She tilted her head and smiled at him, "As you can see, I have a gun pointed at your head and believe me when I say I know how to use it. So you have two choices: you can either be picking your brains off the sidewalk or you can get back in your car that you're obviously compensating for and go. Your choice."

She shrugged. "Makes no difference to me."

She heard a sound come up behind her and she glanced back at who it was. That half second was all the guy needed. He yanked her back to him and held a knife to her throat.

Jesse and Kent walked up to the scene unfolding with Randi and three socs. The one that was obviously the leader now held Randi in his grasp with a knife to her throat. Jesse started toward him when he spoke, his slurred words telling him he was drunk. "Stay back or I cut the bitch's throat!" He saw her eyes darken at the insult and saw her stiffen. She leaned back slightly and spoke ever so softly, "Let me go and I won't hurt you." He snorted and breathed in her ear loud enough for them to hear. "I don't think so, girlie. I'm gonna take you back to my house and then I'm gonna have some fun with you. Me and my friends." They heard the other two guys laugh and for a spilt second Jesse saw something vulnerable flicker in her eyes before her eyes harden to green ice and a evil smile graced her lips. "I warned, man. Just remember that." Then she reared her foot back and kicked him in the knee hard enough for them to hear the bone crack. He dropped the knife and fell like a stone to the ground, howling and holding his injured leg. She turned around to face the other two guys and said, "You gonna leave or end up like your friend here?"

They scrambled to the car and roared down the street and out of sight. The drunk laid on the ground moaning. She looked down at him and sneered, "Maybe next time you'll learn to treat a lady with respect." She turned away and started toward Jesse and Kent when something caught her around the legs and she started to fall. She twisted instinctively in time to fall on her back instead of her stomach. The hard impact knocked the breath out of her and it gave the drunk time to climb on top of her before the guys could reach her and stop him. He pulled his fist back and struck her hard in the jaw. Her head fell back at the hard blow and she glared at him before responding in kind; only hitting him in the nose instead of the jaw. He looked down at her and a light seem to enter his eyes, giving them a cruel look. He pulled his fist back and aimed it directly at her stomach.

Kent made a low sound in his throat when he saw the guy hit her. But he felt real fear when he saw him draw his fist back to hit Randi in the stomach; if he hit her hard enough he could cause her to miscarry. He started to run to them before he made contact, but a blur streaked past him and jumped on the guy.

He saw Randi jerk as Jesse leaped onto the guy and started hitting him. He rushed over to her and saw she had her arms wrapped around her middle. He helped her upright and felt his blood boil at the sight of her jaw already bruising. He saw Jesse jerk the Soc up and gave him a kick in the seat of the pants before he stumbled off down the street and out of sight. He gently took her jaw in his large hand and turned it slightly to see it the damage the bastard had done. He heard Jesse let out a curse that would have shocked ol' Tim Shepard. But to his surprise, Randi didn't bat a eyelash.

She simply looked up at Jesse with something he couldn't describe in her eyes. She cleared her throat and looked at them both, "Thanks for helping, guys." She pulled herself up and winced as she straightened. Both men surrounded her from both sides and looked at her concerned. She made herself straighten despite the pain in her side and gave them a reassuring smile. She looked at them both, "I'm fine, guys you don't have to worry about it, I'm going to go head over to Jane and Sam's place." She started toward that direction when both were at her sides again and were steering her back in the direction of Darry's house. "Just come with us to Dad's house til Pete gets off from work before you leave."

She started to argue when Jesse spoke, "It'll ease our minds, you grabbed your side earlier, you might have pulled something. At least let Pete make sure you and the kid are all right." That took the fight out of her. She sighed and nodded, following after them to Darry's house to wait for Pete to get off and check her over.

Pete parked his truck near the fence of his aunt and uncle's house and walked up the steps to the front porch. He looked down at his emergency kit and hoped she had nothing more serious than a bruised muscle. He got a call about thirty minutes ago before his shift ended from Kent to come over to his parents's house to check Randi out.

He said she had been in a fight and they thought she might have been hit in the stomach or the side. He had no sooner put his foot on the front step he heard a car roaring down the road and stop in front of the house. Looking over his shoulder he saw Jane and Sam tear out of the car like it was on fire and rush up the walk. They stopped short when they saw him.

Sam was wide-eyed while Jane was pale-faced making her large dark eyes stand out even more than usual. She looked up and spotted his emergency kit and he saw her relax a tiny degree. Sam saw his kit and said, "Do you know if Randi is okay?" He looked at them and frowned. Kent said Randi had been lying on the couch since they brought her here and he was the only person Kent called that concerned her. He wondered how they knew about it. "Yeah, how'd you guys know? Kent called me about half hour ago and Randi hasn't moved from the couch since they brought her here." Both women looked at him then at one another, and without another word they pushed past him and went into the house. He followed after them and saw Randi lying on the couch with blanket covering her and fierce scowl on her pretty face. Jane and Sam crouched beside her with concerned looks on their faces. Aunt Cooper had just come in from the kitchen with a tray of food and looked up at the door slamming behind him. Everyone did.

Randi looked up at Pete and gave a sigh of relief. "Thank God you're here. Maybe now SupBaby and Mickey over there," she gestured to Kent and Jesse sitting on the floor watching the Disney channel, "will get off my back. Their about to drive me crazier than I already am!" He chuckled at her words and moved to stand by her feet and set his kit down beside him. Jane and Sam looked reluctant to leave her side til she said in exasperation, "Oh for Heaven's sakes, girls! I'm not made out of glass, he's just going to make sure me and baby girl are all right, not perform brain surgery on me!"

They laughed and the tension that had been thick in the air was broke and they went over to the other couch and watched the tv. She sat patiently on the couch and answered Pete's questions as he ran his hands over her middle and felt along her ribs, all the while she saw Jane give him the dirtiest look she ever saw on her sister's face. She knew then that Jane had more than a mild attraction to him if she was getting all bothered over him examining her. But what really surprised her was the look Jesse was giving them. He glared daggers in the back of Pete's head.

Jesse glared at the back of Pete's head as he bent over Randi to examine her. Never had he felt such jealousy over a woman; especially when it was directed at a man he considered not just a friend but a member of the family. He looked over the top of his head and saw Randi stare him down. He returned it equally, but after a few minutes something caught his attention on the tv and he turned his attention back to the tv. All the while thinking about his out of character reaction. Was he just concerned about the girl and her kid or was he jealous of the fact Pete was getting to touch her while he wasn't?

Randi was jerked back from her thoughts when a sharp pain went through one side of her ribs and she let out a sharp hiss. She slapped away Pete's hand when he went to press on it again and glared at him.

"Quit that!"

He looked at her with exaggerated patience, "I'm trying to figure out if you have a bruised rib or a cracked one, now stop slapping my hand away." She rolled her eyes and ran her hands through her short hair in agitation. She couldn't wait to get this over with and go back to her room. She still had another twenty-four to forty-eight hours left before she would find out anything about the donor. A full day to two days to find out if her world would come crashing down on her again or not. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn't notice the look Sam was giving her or her nudging Jane and see her look in her direction.

But in a blink of a eye, both women were at her side and Sam was lifting her right hand out of her hair and studying the scrapes and bruises on her knuckles. She had seen this type of bruising when someone had been in more than one fight; Kent said she hit the guy that grabbed her only once.

"Randi, why are you knuckles bruised and scraped like that? Were you in more than one fight today?" She looked closely at her face and seemed to zero in on her mouth. "And why do you have a fat lip? Did that sorry sonofabitch hit you?"

Jane was looking over the damage done to her little sister's face and felt her temper snap to life when she saw the bruised jaw and fat lip she bypassed earlier. She looked down at the hand that Sam was holding and saw it was scraped and slightly bruised; like she had been in more than one fight. She felt the now familiar burn of her temper coursing threw her at the sight of her little sister-her _pregnant_ little sister- bruised and cut. She turned her head to look at Jesse and Kent then at the woman sitting on the couch before her. She looked back at the two men watching tv. She cleared her throat and they looked up. "I want the name of the bastard that hit her."

Jesse looked at her confused, "Why?" She felt Sam put a restraining hand on her shoulder; she knew nothing set her off worse than someone hitting someone who couldn't defend themselves. Especially if it was a man hitting a woman or a child.

She glared at him, "So I'll know whose boy's I'm going to rip off and wear them as a pair of earrings!" she snapped.

The men in the room unconsciously cupped or covered themselves while Cooper looked at her with shock and amusement on her face. Sam and Randi both grabbed her hands as she started for the door; she was struggling to control her temper. But she kept seeing the victims she saw in homicide who was beaten to death by someone stronger than they were. And imagining how it could have easily been Randi; she could take care of herself easily but she knew she wouldn't fight if it might endanger her unborn child. She started for the door only to have a strong hand stop her. She looked up to see Sam holding firmly to her arm and her face turned to Kent. "What time does the Y close tongith?" He glanced up at the clock on the wall above him and looked back at her, "It's opened for another hour. Why?" She held Jane in one hand and reached for her keys in her pocket with her other hand. She grasped the keys and started for the door, turning her attention back to the room. "We're heading down to the Y for a while, I'll call when we're heading home." She leveled a look at the redhead on the couch and though her words were directed to Randi, Cooper and Kent caught her unspoken question. "Let Pete make sure you and the baby are all right Ren and try and get yourself back to the motel in one piece."

Her voice softened, "Be careful from here on out while you're here, Ren. I'm not about to have to tell another mother her daughter isn't coming home." Then she marched Jane and herself out the door and got into the driver's seat and started the car, taking them down to the Y to burn off this anger before they did something they couldn't fix back.

Randi looked at the door after Sam and Jane left. She would take Sam's words to heart; her mother didn't need a phone call like that. Not after all she had been through, her mother was a strong woman but Randi knew that would be the thing that broke her. She heard someone's voice and it brought her back to the present, she saw Kent move to stand near the couch and look at her with concern, "Why'd you let Sam get away with what she said? That was abeit harsh."

She shrugged. "Not really. Sam didn't mean it the way you took it." Jesse looked astonished at her words. "How can you defend her when she was being a bitch about it?" She glowered at him and growled at him, "Watch it, Mathews that's my sister your talking about. That woman has saved my butt more times than I care to count growing up and her and Jane are the closest thing I have to sisters. Show her some respect!"

The room went silent at her outburst.

She hung her head and took a deep breath before she spoke again, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that. It's just…" She looked around the room and her eyes landed on Darry and Two-Bit who came in through the back door. Judging by their expressions, they caught the tail-end of the conversation. "You all know that Sam is a cop, and sometimes cops have to deliver some pretty crummy news to families."

She saw by the distant look on Darry and Two-Bit's faces they were remembering the night the police came to deliver the news that would change their lives forever. She continued, "Well, six months after Sam joined the force she had to deliver the news to a elderly woman that her son and his family were killed in a car accident by a drunk driver."

"The woman screamed and slapped her, said she was lying and she should be ashamed of herself for lying." She swallowed back the lump in her throat as she remembered that night. "The woman had a heart attack right in front of her, and ever since then Sam hates to have to deliver the news to a parent that their child is dead.'

She took a deep breath. " So no, I don't take offense. Because I know that is her biggest fear; to have to deliver the news to one of our mothers that we aren't coming home that night or any other night. And it would kill her to have to be the one to be the one to tell it."

She went silent and felt herself began to shake inside as past memories came to the front. Especially one she remembered hearing on the scanner nearly a year ago that they needed Lifeforce brought in for a severely injured female officer.

And she had to deliver the news to her Aunt Kate that Sam was being air-lifted by life force to the nearest hospital and was in critical condition. She shook her head and brushed the three men aside and started for the door when Darry stopped her, he got to the door before her and shook his head. "I don't think you should go back to your room tonight. I don't know if the boys told you, but the guy that attacked you; his father owns and manages the motel your staying at."

And that meant if he wanted to he could get access to her room and finish what he started, she realized. She glanced back at Cooper, who was standing the kitchen doorway and sighed. "Looks like I'm going to be taking you up on your offer to stay the night, Cooper." She returned her gaze back to Darry. "But just for tonight; tomorrow morning I'm going back to the motel."

* * *

After supper that night, Cooper led her upstairs and opened a door to one of the bedrooms. Randi walked in and looked around the room and figured by the pictures around the room it was Maddie's old room when she lived here.

There was a full-sized bed with a yellow quilt in the center of the room, a chest of drawers with a old wooden mirror hanging above it and computer desk on the far wall.

She walked over to the desk and saw that Maddie had been a major jock in high school if the trophies and ribbons were any indication. She went to a complete stop when she saw a framed newspaper article and a heavy glass award. She looked back at Cooper with her mouth nearly hanging open in shock.

"Maddie played for the Lady Vols in college?"

Cooper nodded, a proud smile on her face, and moved to the hutch on the desk and pulled down a framed group photo of the Lady Vols. Maddie stood to the far right, her glowing face smiling back at the camera.

"Her and Kent both won athletic scholarships to UTC right out of high school. He played on the Vols football team and she was one of the few freshman players that year that played in the state championship game. So did Kent." She looked over at her, a grin playing at her lips. "I don't know who was more excited that day; Kent or Darry."

She laughed with her, at least til she saw a picture of Maddie and Kent standing together outside of the UTC stadium. Both were dressed in their uniforms. She turned to her and couldn't help but feel a chill run up her spine. "I was at both of those games; Al and me went up to UTC that weekend they played." She smiled ruefully, "We both were cheering them on, Al thought Kent was amazing on the field." And she had thought Maddie had been awesome on the court; who would have ever guessed that one day she would become friends with them?

Later that night after Kent, Jesse, Pete and Two-Bit left for their own homes and Darry and Cooper were asleep down the hall Randi laid in Maddie's old bedroom, tossing and turning in a fitful sleep. Her dreams anything but peaceful….

"_All units report. We have a officer down, we need LifeForce in here immediately." Randi looked up as the scanner crackled to life, a feeling of dread so strong it was about to choke her, enveloped her. The dispatcher hit a button and talked into the microphone, "Roger that. Were is your location? Lifeforce is on their way." The scanner crackled again as the man's voice came back on the line. "We're up in the mountains-" he broke off with a curse and she heard another man in the background swearing frantically. "Dammit, where's that 'copter we're losing her! Somebody get over here and hold this pressure bandage while I do CPR!" Then she heard a voice that gave her chills and made her weak in the knees. _

"_Sam! Oh, God Sam! Don't you die on me! Dammit, don't you die on me now!" It was Jane's voice hollering out Sam's name. _

_She looked up at a large shadow and saw it was her SWAT commander. She looked at him silently asking him. He nodded to her and she ran out of the precinct at top speed, she looked out at the parking lot and spotted her bike and ran to it. She was on it in a flash and was racing out to the family home at top speed. Although while dreading having to tell her Aunt Kate that her only daughter may or may not be home that night or any other night_….

_The scene changed and Randi felt like she was in the eye of a tornado and the harder she tried to make it to the other side the harder it pulled at her. She was outside of a hospital ICU room and distantly heard a doctor order a nurse more volts and another IV. She looked up at felt her cheeks become wet with tears, Sam laid on a hospital bed with her gown drawn down and a doctor charging the machine to a higher voltage and a nurse performing CPR. _

_Jane laid on a bed next to her, her shirt cut apart and a similar machine being charged next to her. "Clear!" Jane arched under the paddles. A nurse looked at the machines, "No change, charge it again!" _

"_Clear!" She saw this time Sam arch under the electricity. A flat line was beeping on both of their machines. It went on for what felt like days, then with a defeated expression the doctor said, "How long since there was activity for either one?" A nurse looked up from Sam and said softly, "Thirty minutes, Doctor." He nodded and said, "Call it; time of death 10:28 pm." A nurse looked up from Jane said in a defeated tone, "Time of death; 10:29 pm." Randi felt her knees give away and collapsed to the ground, she heard a scream and another heart-wrenching scream and saw both of her aunts fall to their knees. Just before she lost consciousness she saw her brother and mother catch her aunts before they fell to the floor in a dead faint…_

_The scene changed again and she saw she was standing in the middle of the living room of her childhood home in New Orleans. She heard the front door burst open and looked up to see her father standing there, a sad and angry expression on his face. He took a large gulp of nearly empty bottle of bourbon in his large hand. "Why didn't you save them, girl? Your suppose to be their sister, watch their backs and keep them safe?" He glared at her when she didn't answer. He threw the bottle in her direction and she felt a piece of glass cut her cheek and the liquor splash her skin and clothes. She looked up at him and glared at him, "I did! If I had my way, I would have been there by their side. I would have picked the little bastards off one by one if I could have!" He glared at her and viciously backhanded her, knocking her to the ground. "Don't talk back like that to me, you little whore!" _

_He spat at her feet._

_She wiped the blood from her spilt lip while he sneered at her, "Your just like your mother, nothing but a sorry, good-for-nothing cheating bitch!" _

_She glared up at him and got to her feet, then she drew her fist back and landed a solid blow to her father's jaw. He stumbled back and she stood her ground; her chin lifted in defiance. "If there's a cheating bitch in this room; its you Dad." She started to turn away and before she could blink he was pushing her to the floor and she heard a sound and turned her head in time to see him remove his belt. "I'll show you how to respect your betters, you little bitch!" The leather belt came down hard on her back, the pain making her gasp. She laid there paralyzed with pain and fear as he continued to bring down the belt, whipping her till she could feel the heavy belt buckle cut into her very bones. And she saw the floor around her turn red_….

Randi jackknifed upright in the bed, gasping for breath. She looked around the unfamiliar room as a familiar fear threatened to choke her. With an effort, she took deep breaths to stop the panic attack that threatened to erupt. When her heart wasn't pounding in her ears, she remembers were she was: she was at Darry and Cooper's house. Fighting the sick feeling rolling in her stomach; she grabbed her cell from her jacket and called a number she could have dialed in her sleep. Sam's voice came over the line, "Hello?" Randi felt the tight feeling in her chest lessen slightly at the sound of her oldest sister's voice.

"Hi, Sam. I didn't call at a bad time did I?"

"No, you actually called a good time, Jane and me are heading down to the station. Listen, do you want to meet with us for lunch today?"

She breathed a sigh of relief; they were safe. Suddenly she felt the rolling feeling in her stomach rise into her throat. "Yeah, that sounds good. Listen, I'll call you later. Tell Jane I said hi. Gotta go!" She closed the phone and rushed down the hall to the bathroom and sank to her knees, making it just in time to empty the contents of her stomach in the commode.

* * *

Maddie was greeted that morning with the sun shining brightly in her eyes and a pair of masculine arms wrapped around her. She smiled sleepily and turned into his arms, away from the sun. She started to drift back off to sleep when something hit her.

Sun. Up.

Daylight.

Work.

Her eyes popped back open.

"Oh, crap! I'm going to be late for work!"

She pulled away her lover and out of the bed, rushing around the room, pulling a spare change of clothes out of his dresser and went tearing into the bathroom, turning on the hot water and stepped in and proceeded to take the fastest shower in history. She stepped back out in record time and pulled the spare toothbrush out and gobbed on the toothpaste and brushed her teeth while she dried off and dressed in her spare uniform the spa required her to wear. She grabbed a water glass and filled it with water and spit it and the toothpaste back out. Opening the medicine cabinet, she grabbed a brush and rubberband and started combing out her tangled brown hair, then twisted into a long braided rope that she wound into a tight bun at the back of her head. She hurried back into the bedroom and grabbed her purse and pulled her makeup case out and applied a light coverage of makeup. She was about to apply her lip gloss when she heard a groan and the sound of feet hitting the floor.

She looked up just in time to see her lover coming to stand in the doorway. He gave her a once over that gave her shivers; he moved to stand behind her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. And saw he was naked as the day he was born. And did he looked good naked. If she had her way, he would stay naked. Course that meant they most likely would never leave his place. He bent his head and nuzzled her neck, and she pretended like that didn't make her insides turn to Jell-O while she applied her lip gloss.

His hands moved to the front of her uniform while he continued to nuzzle the delicate skin between her neck and jaw, shuddering when he tugged at her earlobe. With a dazed look she saw in the mirror one of his hands move to the buttons on the front, slowly undoing them while his other hand reached up to cup her breast. His hand brushed the edges away, exposing her chest to his hungry eyes. He pushed the offending lace out of his way and she arched into his touch as she felt him touch her bare skin. She turned in his arms as he wrapped his hands around her waist and set her on top of the counter, stepping between her open legs. He pushed the sleeves down and the top laid bunched around her waist, her bra thrown carelessly over the sink behind her. She cupped his face in her hands and brought his face down to hers. His lips were soft against hers, he gave her a soft kiss, but she saw him lick his lips and smiled. He never could resist kissing her when she wore this flavor; it tasted like chocolate-covered strawberries and he never could resist kissing her when she wore it. He once described it as a sweet treat that made him hungry for more; her.

He moaned against her lips and cupped her jaw in one hand and brought her to him, his lips devouring hers. She arched against him, feeling her bare skin press against his. He pulled away from her, leaving her insides quivering like a lump of Jell-O. "Good morning." She could hear the smirk in his voice. Her eyes popped open at his greeting.

Morning.

She glanced down at her watch and nearly swallowed her tongue. She was already ten minutes late and she still had a twenty minute drive across town to get to the spa. She pushed him away and grabbed up her bra as she hurried out of the room in search of her shoes, refastening and buttoning as she went. She went back into the bathroom and grabbed her purse and started for the door only to have a strong arm wrap around her waist and stop her. He pulled her to him and gave her a kiss that had her toes curling in her shoes. She made herself pull away.

"Sweetheart, I can't I'm late." He pulled back and sighed, walking over to his chest. He pulled on a pair of jeans and a unbuttoned shirt, walking over to the door. He held it open for her, "I know. You were over at your brother's place kind of late and you couldn't sneak away. But dammit, I'm getting tired of us having to sneak around like we're still in high school." She opened her mouth to argue, but he put a finger to her mouth and she closed it.

"Mad, you know I love you. And I know you love me." She stopped on the stairs and looked at him incredulously. "Of course, I love you. It's just my family-"

He nodded, "I know, your brother would be okay, but your parents wouldn't be thrilled your seeing an older guy. You dad exceptionally.

But Mad, your grown woman, and while I don't mind the sneaking around much. I'd like to be able to take my girlfriend out without worrying about one of her cousins or one of her uncles seeing us together and report back to your dad." She nodded her agreement; she would like to be able to see her boyfriend without having to skulk about like he was a dirty secret. But a few years ago, her dad found out Kent was dating a woman nearly fifteen years his senior and didn't tell anybody about it till she tried to blackmail him into staying with her after he found out she was married.

To describe her dad as livid was an understatement of the year.

Her dad wouldn't speak to him for a whole month; she did not want history repeating itself. But she wasn't being fair about this; and she was selling her dad short over one experience. She looked up at him and smiled. "Your right; tonight I'll talk to Kent and see if he'll double team with me on mom and dad. Just be patient."

He let out a annoyed sigh but nodded. She could be such a stubborn hardhead mule sometimes; but that was why he loved her. She reached up and buzzed him a quick peck on the lips before running out the club door and he heard her car start up and spin gravel as she tore out of the parking lot.

As Maddie drove down the road and away from the club she couldn't help but think of how she met him; he had hurt his back years ago in a rodeo accident and came in at a friend's insistence that having a beautiful woman giving him a massage might do him so good. It did; that night she said yes to his invitation to dinner and they had been dating for nearly a year now. All in secret. But Maddie knew if her father knew who she was dating it wouldn't matter if he was nearly eight years older than her, or he owned one of the most popular and wildest night clubs in town.

It would be because he was Ken Merrill. Son of the late Buck Merrill and owner of the formerly know Buck's Roadhouse.

* * *

_Thanks for the reviews. Sorry it took so long getting this chapter up; but Christmas was absolutely hectic at my house this year. Let me know what you think about the scene between Maddie and Ken._


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or characters that aren't mine. They belong to S.E. Hinton and authors respectively.

* * *

Chapter Twelve

Jane stopped at the DX gas station on the way down to the precinct and was about to pump the gas when her cell rang and she saw it was her mother. She looked at Sam and she nodded and got out and went over to the gas tank. She answered the phone and heard Mikey on the other line.

Soda came out when he saw Sam get out to pump gas and walked over to her. "Ma'am, I'll do that. We're still a full-service station." She looked up at the sound of his voice and smiled, "I'd decline the offer except I really can't stand the smell of gas on my hands." She stepped aside and he filled the car up, they talked briefly while it filled up and he looked up at the sound of someone laughing and saw it was Jane. She was grinning and laughing at something while she was on a cell phone. She smiled and said, "Yeah, well sweetie I gotta let you go and head out to work. Love ya, Mikey. Bye."

He felt a shock run through him; who was this Mikey? He thought Jane and Pete were dating. Or had plans this Friday; did that still count as dating?

He saw Jane hang up the phone and walked over the driver's side and got her billfold and walk in his direction. He frowned at her; "I thought you and Pete were seeing one another. Was that your guy back in Savannah? Because, I'll warn you ahead of time; Pete might not act it but he is a one woman kind of guy."

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers and her jaw nearly dropped to the ground. She stood there for a minute like that before she remembered herself and closed her mouth and shook her head.

"Mikey is not my boyfriend."

She started to say more but stopped and shook her head. She opened her billfold and handed him the money, and he saw a sheaf of pictures in the middle of it. He saw a group picture of her, Sam, the girl Randi, and a young man that bore a striking resemblance to Dallas; only with dark hair. She started to flip it close when he saw a picture that made him break out in a cold sweat.

Steve looked up at the sound of the bell ringing over the front door; Soda was standing there with a shocked look on his pale face. He walked woodenly over to the counter and sat down on the stool behind him. Steve was starting to get worried; the only other time he had seen him like this was when Alli told him she was pregnant with twins and when Sandy came back to see Bri on her eighteenth birthday. He touched his shoulder and said, "Soda, man are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." He looked at him with wide eyes and pulled something from his shirt pocket and tossed it down on the counter infront of him. Steve glanced down at it and saw why Soda looked like he had seen a ghost- he felt alittle like he had seen one too. A picture of a little boy laid in front of him; at first glance he thought it was a old childhood picture of Johnny.

But a second look said it couldn't be, the picture looked new and the boy had on clothes he had seen on kids around town. He looked at Soda and asked in a hoarse whisper, "Who is he?" He looked at him out of a pale face and whispered, "This is Mikey, Steve. Jane's son."

* * *

Randi looked up weakly from the toilet and flushed it, leaning back heavily against the tub behind her. When the last wave of nausea had passed she hesitantly got to her feet. Leaning heavily on the wall behind her, she walked slowly to the sink and turned on the cold water full blast; splashing it in her face and rinsing out her mouth several times before she shut off the water. She walked out of the bathroom and stepped out into the hall and down to the room she spent in last night and was surprised to see her bag sitting on top of the made bed. She walked over to it and saw a note sitting on top of it; she picked it up and read it, and smiled; Kent and Darry went over to her motel room this morning and got her bag.

She made a note to herself to thank them when she saw them again. In the shape she was in right now, the most she could do to defend herself was throw up on someone. She grimaced at the thought and rummaged threw her bag and found some peppermint in a baggie at the bottom and popped a piece in her mouth. Her mother told her once she practically lived off of this stuff the first couple of months she was pregnant with her; she just hoped she wasn't going to too. She decided then to take the opportunity to use the shower and grabbed up some clean clothes and her cell phone and went into the bathroom and took a quick much-needed shower.

She was pulling her shirt over her head and in the process of combing her hair out when her phone rang and felt her stomach do a flip-flop. She grabbed it up and saw it was Lexie. She took a deep breath and said a quick prayer before she flipped it open and answered. "Hey, Lex. How are you doing?"

"Good. How have you been? You got to your sisters's place alright?" She gave a nod she couldn't see, "Yeah, I got here alright. I'm doing good, had my first experience with morning sickness this morning but other than that I'm good." Both were silent for a few minutes before Lexie spoke again, this time all-business.

"I found some information on your guy. Most of the file was destroyed but I managed to find a name and an address. Maybe you could contact him, but Randi be sure this is what you want to do before you go and do it." Randi took a moment for it to sink in before she said anything. "I'm sure, Lex. If I don't find out anything about this guy for me, I need to know about him for the baby. One day she's going to have questions, I want to at least be able to answer one of them."

She sighed and she heard the sound of paper rattling before she spoke again, "Alright, you ready?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Cooper looked up from her conversation with Wendy and saw Randi standing in the doorway, looking paler than usual.

Cooper couldn't help but think the girl looked like her world had come crashing down around her feet. Wendy saw the look on her face as well because she walked over to her and led her to the table and set her down. Wendy had went upstairs earlier that morning to see if Randi was awake and heard her being sick in the bathroom, so she made her up a drink she made her and Alli when they were pregnant. She walked over to the fridge and brought out a container and poured some of it into a glass and handed it to her.

Randi looked at the glass filled with a liquid of an indescribable color. Wendy laughed her expression; "It's something my sister made me when I was pregnant with Pete. I heard you were sick this morning so I whipped it up for you. It's suppose to help ease morning sickness. Drink up." She gave her a grateful smile and took a discreet sniff and wrinkled her nose at the peculiar smell. She took a tentative sip, and started gagging immediately. She ran over to the sink and spit it out and cupped some water into her hand and gargled it several times before spitting it back out. That tasted nastier than the prenatal vitamins she choked down yesterday!

She was so going to have to find a better solution to getting all this stuff this baby needed. She turned back around and handed the glass back to her, "Help ease morning sickness? I'm surprised you lasted to term if you drank that stuff every morning."

She laughed and dumped the contents down the drain and handed her a packet of saltine crackers and a bottled water. She shook her head, "I didn't think it would work; with the exception of myself it's only worked on my sister, Alli, and Cooper. The rest of the girls when they got pregnant couldn't stomach it either. Guess its crackers for you too."

Randi just shook her head, "Jeez, what's today? How-To-Make-The-Pregnant-Girl-Crazy day?" Wendy sat down at the table with her and shared a concerned look with Cooper. Randi noticed in that notion they both put her in mind of her own mother and aunts.

Cooper sat down next to her with a cup of coffee, "What's wrong?"

She sighed, "Oh, nothing. Just found out the sperm bank I went to get inseminated at made a mistake and gave me a different donor than the one I chose." Wendy looked horrified.

"What? What are you going to do? Can you find out who he is?"

She laughed, and before she realized it, she was laughing hysterically with both women looking at her like she lost it; which was too far from the truth. She took a sip of the water in front of her before she started again. "Sorry, it's just that my friend at the clinic pulled some strings and went hunting threw the clinic database to found out who he is. She called this morning to tell me her findings. And I don't know what the hell I'm going to do about it. She said that his file was destroyed; all but his name and address. And he's from around here."

Randi could almost see the wheels turning in the women's heads as they processed this information. She realized then they both were a good match to Darry and Ponyboy in that way.

"Who is it? If you don't mind me asking?"

"No, I don't mind. Actually, I was wondering do you know where the guys are right now. I need to talk to one of them."

"Yeah, they're down at Two-Bit's bar sitting up the stage for tonight. Why-" She stopped as she realized why she was looking for them. Wendy looked at Cooper who had a equally shocked look on her face and then back at her, looking like she was about to faint, "You mean one of the boys is-" She nodded as she got up from the table and put her leather jacket on. "Yeah, but ya'll please don't tell anyone about this, I want to tell him first and to be honest; I don't really know how he'll react."

Randi could think about nothing else as she rode her bike down to the bar. She stood outside for at least ten minutes before she could get up the courage to go inside and tell someone that their whole life was about to be changed.

Kent looked up at the sound of the bar door opening and saw Randi come through the door. She looked around nervously, fiddling with the zipper of her jacket, and saw they were all working on the stage for the bar's first karaoke night. He smiled at her, "Hi, Randi. What ya doing down here? Couldn't wait to see me later tonight?"

She smiled as the rest of them said their hellos, and shook her head, "No, I actually need to see-" she was interrupted at that time by Two-Bit coming in with a grate of clean mugs for the bar. "Hey, Randi. Whatcha doin' down here? My charm and good looks bring you down there?" She smiled at him, "No, actually I'm looking for Jesse is he here?"

"He's right behind you."

She jumped at the sound of his deep voice behind her and fought to keep herself from wobbling in her heels. She wasn't even showing yet and already her balance was getting iffy. Even so, he reached out to steady her; she felt her cheeks heat up at his touch and judging by his amused expression, he saw her blush too. She silently cursed her pale skin. She smiled at him nervously, "Hey, um is there some place we could talk privately?" He frowned and looked over at his father for confirmation.

"Go on, son I got it from here."

He nodded and led her to the door that led to the office. He shut the door and turned to her, "What do you want to talk about Randi? How do you feel this morning?" She smiled,

"Good, was alittle sick this morning, but I've been advised what is the best thing for morning sickness from everybody and their grandma so I should know what to do next time." He saw her mess with the zipper on her jacket. He noticed she did that when she was nervous. She must be a nervous wreck judging by how if she messed with the zipper. If she held it any tighter it was going to snap off in her hand.

"Randi, is something wrong?" She didn't say anything, just sat down and folded her hands in her lap.

She looked up at him and sighed, "Look, I don't know how to tell you this so I'm just going to flat out tell you. You know I'm pregnant, right?" He nodded, thinking how when he found out he was disappointed to find some guy had already staked his claim on this very hot woman. Though, hell would freeze over before he admitted that out loud.

She cleared her throat, bringing his thoughts back to the matter at hand. She stood up and walked over to the desk absently playing with the penholder on it.

Though he hadn't known her very long, she didn't strike him as the fidgety type and that was what she was doing. He had a bad feeling what she had to say he wasn't going to like it.

"Jesse, I was artificially inseminated and the clinic mixed up the donors and you're the father."

It took him a few minutes to realize what her rushed words meant.

He sank into the chair along the wall. He looked at her in shock. He took a breath that seemed to be caught in his chest.

"Could you repeat that? 'Cause, I thought for a minute you said I'm the father of the kid you're carrying."

She nodded her head sadly. "You heard right. I was inseminated four weeks ago today and about two weeks ago, I got a call from the clinic saying there had been a mix-up and they didn't use the donor I had originally chosen. I tried to get some information on him, but they told me his file was destroyed and so was his sample shortly after I was inseminated. A friend of mine at the clinic I was inseminated at did some digging for me to see if she could find some information in an old database and she told me her findings this morning. " She let out a shuddering breath, drawing attention to the cleavage that was showed off in the blue sweater she wore.

She continued, "She said he lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma and he donated about two-and-half years ago." She took a breath and spoke the words that changed life as he knew it. "And that his name was Jesse Mathews."

* * *

The guys looked up at the sound of a door slamming and saw Randi coming though the door of the office and go out the front door. They all heard the reeve of her bike as she took off. They saw Jesse come out a few minutes after she left, looking like he was about to collapse. He went behind the bar and took out a large shot glass and a bottle of Jack Daniels. He sat down at the bar and proceeded to pour the glass to the brim. He drained it one gulp. The guys looked at one another worriedly; Jesse wasn't known to drink this early in the day.

Even Two-Bit looked at his son worriedly, when he started to pour a second glass Two-Bit took the bottle out of his son's hand and looked at him with a concerned expression. "Kid, what's wrong? You don't drink this time in the day, only if you're celebrating."

He looked at him and grinned. He knew his son was attracted to the tall redhead since she came into town; he must have asked her out and she finally said yes.

"She say yes when you asked her out? That why you have a shot-celebrating, son?"

He shook his head. Two-Bit's grin faded as he found he wasn't drinking for that reason; he also realized he had never seen his son so quiet. He was like him; always saying something. Kent and the rest of the guys came up to him then, "Dude, what's wrong? She tell you off for something?"

Again, he shook his head.

Randy, having known him just as long as the rest spoke up then.

"Then why the hell are you drinking at 11:30 in the morning?"

"She's pregnant," he croaked out.

They all looked at one another at the bit of news; they already knew that. It came out the first day she was here.

Mike sat down beside him shrugged and looked at him, "So? We all know that. What's so shocking about that?"

He looked at him and Mike was stunned at the agony and indecision in his gray eyes.

"Because it's my baby she's carrying; that's why."

* * *

Two-Bit held onto the bar as he felt his legs try to buckle. He knew he didn't hear right. Jesse could not be the father of Randi's child. They only met recently. Well, technically with how technology was these days, they had plenty of time to get pregnant and know it right then.

He took several shot glasses from behind him and poured them all a shot of JD. He had a feeling they were all going to need it before his son finished.

"Kid, I think you need to start from the beginning. Like tellin' me that I'm going to be a grandfather."

That managed to get a weak smile out the shell-shocked man. He took a deep breath and started talking, "She had a close call at work a few months ago and it got her thinking about a lot of things."

"Kids being at the top of the list; so she made the decision to be inseminated and four months ago. She made arrangements at a sperm bank somewhere up in Tennessee."

"She had the procedure done after choosing a donor. She's four weeks today. She got a call from the clinic about two weeks ago sayin they mixed up the donors and gave her mine. A friend at the clinic found a old database and found out I'm the donor they used." He was quiet as he finished his drink. The rest were silent as they processed this information. This meant Two-Bit would be the first of the original gang to be a grandfather.

Jesse would be the first of the gang to be a father, if any of this was true.

Two-Bit frowned as a thought occurred to him.

"Wait a minute. How do you know she isn't pulling your leg? Or maybe tryin to scam ya?"

Jesse looked up at his father; an unreadable expression on his face. He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Pop, you remember when you and me had the chance to buy the bar a about three years ago?"

He nodded; a sick feeling in his stomach at where this was going.

He sighed; running his hands though his hair once more till it stood on end.

"Well, I decided to sell my Harley to get my half of the money. I had a buyer interested in it and was willing to pay big bucks for it if I took it up to Gatlinburg for him to see it. It was during the car show convention up there. Well, the guy bailed at the last minute so I had to sell it for whatever I could get out of it at the show."

He paused long enough to down his shot before continuing.

"But I was still short on my share. Some guy told me about selling your sperm could get you some big bucks. So, I went down to their nearest sperm bank and gave a donation. About two months ago, I realized I shouldn't have done that. I called them up and asked had anyone took it. I told them to take it out. They said they would destroy my file and take me off of the donor list and dispose of it." He laughed bitterly.

"Apparently they didn't move fast enough; Randi said when she tried to find out who the donor was they told her the file was destroyed and the sample was too right after she was inseminated. Her friend at the clinic spent the last couple of weeks going through all of the clinics records from an old database before she found mine. And to answer your question, Pete-" He looked over at Pete knowing he would ask the question he was about to answer.

"She's not far along enough for them to do a paternity test to see if I am the father. She said they told her she had to be at least fourteen weeks along before they could do the test."

Everyone was quiet after that. A few minutes later, they returned to work on the stage; Jesse got up from the bar, grabbed his keys off the hook beside the mirror. He left the bar and started up his truck; where he was going he didn't know yet. He just knew he needed to clear his head for awhile.

* * *

Randi pulled up infront of Darry and Cooper's house and shook her hair out from the helmet and got off of the bike and walked up the path to the house. But she didn't go inside at first; she sat out on the front porch swing, thinking about the last couple of hours since she woke up this morning.

She was pregnant.

She was single, twenty-fours years old, and pregnant by a man she barely knew. If she wasn't so depressed she would laugh at the irony of it all.

"_Course, the mood I'm in I'm liable to start laughin and then burst into tears five seconds after I do it_," she thought.

She decided she had enough worrying for the moment and got up and went into the house only to find a note from Cooper saying she was called in to work at the last minute and Wendy had a emergency meeting down at the local college where she taught. She sighed and decided she would go down to the precinct and wait for Jane and Sam's lunch hour; she only had another hour to wait. She got up from the kitchen table and started for the door when the door slammed open and Jesse stood there framing the doorway.

She stood there frozen for a moment before she could gather enough brains to talk. "Hi, Jesse. What are you doing here?" He shut the door behind him, "I don't know. One minute I'm fine, everything's cool; the next I get some chick that I barely know come up and tell me I'm the father of her kid via insemination. How do you think I feel?"

She cocked her head at him and studied him for a long minute before she said anything.

"I don't know, Jesse. Try being the one that's pregnant, cause it ain't exactly a picnic. Or spending the last two weeks on pins and needles wondering who they mixed the donor's sperm with someone else. Try being terrified of what your going to find out about this man and terrified he's someone out of your worse nightmares."

By that time she was yelling and Jesse was looking at her in surprise and anger mixed on his handsome face. She ducked her head, she had been so short-tempered as of late and she knew it was because she was so worried about everything. But the guilty feeling she had evaporated with his next words. He ran an agitated hand threw his already messy hair and growled in his throat as he started to pace the room.

"Dammit, I told those dumbasses to get rid of it! If they had done their job I wouldn't be in this mess."

She glared at him. "Hey, back that train up right there. I didn't exactly ask for this to go this way either. I went into that clinic thinking I chose a donor I thought would've traits I would appreciate in my child. Instead, I get told two weeks after I conceived they mixed my donor up with someone else." To her shame, she felt tears sting her eyes and began to run down her cheeks. "You haven't sat around for the last two weeks wondering if your world was going to come crashing down around you again." She looked away, trying to stifle the sobs that were shuddering in her chest.

He looked at the woman before him and felt ashamed at all he said. Weather or not he was the donor, she still had had a tough month. And here he was acting like a selfish ass.

Suddenly, he was thankful neither of his parents were here; because they both would have slapped him crazy for all the bull he said to her.

She looked back at him and saw the angry look on his face melt away at her tear-choked words. To her surprise, she saw him stride over to her and took her into his arms. At first, she held herself stiffly, but after a few moments she relaxed her stance and let herself be held by him. When she had regained some of her composure, she pulled away and gave him a small smile. "I'm sorry for going crazy. I'm not normally like that." He nodded his understanding. "I understand, 'sides I had no right to say what I did." She nodded, "You're right; you didn't."

He could have gotten upset at those words, but he knew there was some truth to them. She stepped away from him and said, "I need to get my bag and head down to the station. I promised Jane and Sam I'd have lunch with them." She went to the hall where the stairs where and walked up them to the second floor, with him following after her. She walked into Maddie's old room and grabbed up a brown knapsack sitting on the bed. She undid the flap on top and reached in and pulled out a gun holster, she pulled out the gun holstered in it and clicked something on the side and the magazine fell into her open hand. She looked it over with a expert eye and reloaded it, she took her jacket off and set it on the bed and lifted the back of her shirt and holstered the gun in the waistband of her jeans and tugging her shirt back into place. But not before he saw the tattoo on her lower back. It was one of a crouching tiger, the detail-work so detailed and life-like he half expected it to come off her skin and leap at him.

Randi turned around and saw by Jesse's expression he saw her tattoo.

"What are you staring at; you never saw a tattoo before?" He blinked and looked at her while she closed the bag and reached for something in the side pocket. She pulled out what looked like a switchblade and strapped to the inside of one of her boots. He gestured to it, "What is that, a switchblade?" She looked downed at it and then up at him and shook her head, "No, it's a S.W.A.T. knife."

He arched a brow at that, "What are you doing with a S.W.A.T. knife?" She gave him a look, "Because I was on the S.W.A.T. team in Savannah." He couldn't stop the shocked look that came across his face. He would not have guess she was on S.W.A.T.; he knew she was a cop but not S.W.A.T.

She laughed at the shocked look on his face. She knew what he was thinking; back home most people were seriously surprised when she said she used to be on the SWAT team.

"What did you do on it?" She cocked her head at his question; nobody had ever asked what she did on the team. Probably because most people knew what she did; unfortunately she tended to be publicized on certain cases. She let out a heavy breath and looked at him, telling herself it would be necessary for her to see his expression when she told him. "I used to work Missing Persons with Jane. Before that; I was a sniper." She pulled on her jacket and tossed her bag on her back and brushed past and walked out of

the room, not looking to see if he was following her.

* * *

Sam looked around the diner were they agreed to have lunch; her and Jane were waiting for Randi to come before they ordered. She saw Jane take her phone out of her jacket pocket, when she saw Randi and coming threw the door and to her surprise, Jesse not far behind her. She spotted them and waved, pushing herself threw the crowd she made to the booth with little trouble. She looked behind and Jesse came up beside her. She smiled at them, slightly out of breath from having to squeeze threw the crowd, "Hey, girls. Do you mind if Jesse joined us?" Jane and her exchanged a silent look; what brought this on? The week she had been here she avoided him as much as possible.

Jane looked up at her and smiled, "Sure." She patted the seat next to her, "Pull up a booth." They sat down and had just opened their menus when their waitress came up. She was wearing a retro-style pink uniform and a white apron with a white nametag that read 'Shannon'. She pulled out a tablet and pen out, "I'm Shannon, I'll be your waitress today. What can I get for you?" Though she was smiling you could tell this was the last place she wanted to be. Randi skimmed over her menu while the others ordered, she looked up when they stopped talking and saw the girl looking at her impatiently. She set her menu down and said, "I'll have a Sprite and a chicken salad, no dressing please." The girl wrote down her order, but she caught the look she gave her out of the corner of her eye. She recognized that look; she had gotten a few of them over the years when she went to restaurants. Like aren't you alittle late on getting that salad.

She learned a long time ago to ignore them.

She deliberately put those thoughts at the back of her mind and turned her attention back to her sisters.

"Ren, how are you doing? You didn't sound so good this morning," Sam observed. Randi took a sip of her drink before she answered. "I'm okay, wasn't feelin all that perky this morning but I'm over it now. Knock wood." She grinned and tapped out a rhythm on top of the fake wooden table.

"So, Jesse what made you come with Ren to lunch? I thought you normally work the lunch hour at the bar?" He nodded, "I normally do, but Randi said she wanted to go by her motel and check out while she was getting the rest of her stuff and I offered to go with her."

Sam and Jane shared a look of alarm, then looked back at their little sister. "Your leaving?" She shook her head, "No, I'm staying here a little while longer. I actually wanted to talk to you guys, do you mind if I stay with you guys for a couple of days?" Both women exchanged a look before answering, "Sure, Ren but, why did you check out of your room if your staying longer?"

She felt Jesse look at her as she answered, "I can't stay there." She decided not to elaborate simply because she didn't want a repeat of last night.

"And Lex called me this morning."

Sam frowned, "You mean about the donor?" She nodded and braced herself for their reaction.

"She found out the guy is living here in Tulsa, I got the address today and went to go see him. He told them a month and a half ago to get rid of it, so to say he was surprised was an understatement." She took a deep breath before she went on, "We both agreed to a paternity test to be sure the information Lex found for me is right. The only problem is, I have to wait another ten weeks before it's considered safe for me and the baby to have the test done."

They both gaped at her news. The table was silent for all of five seconds before they broke in hushed voices so no one around them could hear them.

"What?!"

"Ren, are you nuts? What were you thinking going to this guy's address, for all you knew he could have been a crazed psycho!"

Both looked like they were ready to explode, and any other time it would have made her laugh to see her two normally calm sisters about to blow a gasket.

But not today. Today she felt like joining them.

She was saved from responding when their waitress came to their table with their orders. They ate in silence the rest of the meal.

Randi finished hers before the other three and took her pillbox out and reached around Jane, picking up a packet of grape jelly left over from breakfast. She picked up her spoon and squeezed the jelly onto it and placed the tablets into the gooey mess and swallowed the spoonful with little trouble.

"_Well now I know what do next time I have to take those pills_", she thought as she took a sip of her drink in front of her. Sam set her fork down and pushed her plate away from her, her classic way of saying she was done.

"Ren you never said if you're on a leave of absence or if you decided to take a early maternity leave. Are you going back to SWAT after the baby is born or staying with Missing Persons?" She hesitated before answering; thinking her sisters would say she wasn't thinking it through. But surprisingly what should have been a difficult decision, wasn't all that difficult to make.

"Neither. I-I um, I handed in my resignation to both my commander in SWAT and Missing Persons before I came here. I told them I wouldn't be coming back."

Sam opened her mouth to say something but Jane gave her a look that stopped her. She couldn't say she liked her decision, but she could well understand it. She couldn't really blame her when she herself once said when she formally adopted her foster son, she would leave the force and move onto something else.

_

* * *

Thank you for your reviews and patience. Did I surprise you? _

_Also, I don't know for sure if that's the length needed in order to take that test Randi was going to take I just heard it somewhere, so if anyone knows for sure or if anything needs to be corrected feel free to let me know and I try and fix it._


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or characters that aren't mine. They belong to S.E. Hinton and authors respectively.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

After they finished lunch, Jane and Sam went back to work and Randi and Jesse were heading over to their apartment. Randi pulled Sam's key out of her pocket and unlocked the door and went inside with Jesse following her. She looked around the living room and saw other than a few books and movies they hadn't changed much to it. She set her bag down on the couch and saw Jesse set her knapsack down next to the coffee table. Neither said anything for a long moment. Finally she broke the silence, "Thanks for driving me to the motel and here. I appreciate it." He nodded, "Your welcome." More silence filled the room. He gestured to the door and said, "I guess I should go. Dad's probably setting up for tonight. I'll see you later." He turned to leave when she called out to him softly, "Jesse. I still have another ten weeks before we can take the test, do you want to keep it between us till then?" He turned and shrugged. "I don't see a reason why we should keep it a secret."

He grinned at her, "Besides, I already told my dad, might as well wait and let him tell everyone." She laughed and grinned back at him.

He turned and left with her laughter following him out. A few minutes later she sat down on the couch and took out her cell and dialed her mother's number. And braced herself for the shock wave that would probably be felt all the way to New Orleans.

* * *

"What?!"

Val looked up from her desk at the loud sound and walked over to her office door that led to her bedroom and opened the door and peered outside into the hallway. She saw Kate had opened her door as well with a shocked look on her face that mirrored her own. That sounded like Brooke they heard yelling, and it sounded like it was downstairs. Both went tearing down the hall and the back stairs that led to the kitchen where they heard her. They heard her talking loudly as they drew closer to the kitchen. For once Val was glad she closed the restaurant down early this week due to the staff having the flu, because it sounded like she swearing a blue streak in Cajun.

And that shocked her, Brooke normally wasn't one to swear unless she was so mad that was all she could do, or something really disturbed her. They reached the last step that led to the kitchen and stopped short at the sight that greeted them. A pale and trembling Brooke was standing at the butcher-block table in the center of the room, a untouched steaming tray of food laid in front of her, and she had her phone pressed against her ear.

Her green eyes had widened til they nearly took up her whole face. She stopped in mid-word when she saw them. She closed her mouth and closed her eyes as she tried to regain control of her temper. Finally she opened her eyes and spoke into the phone. "Randi, I'll call you later. I have company," then she hung up.

It wasn't until they saw her leaning against the table they realized just how bad she was shaking. The glass on the tray was rattling ever so slightly against the plate next to it.

Val hurried to her side when she saw her sway on her feet and Kate rushed to get a stool and they set her on it. Kate had never seen her so pale, she could almost see the veins under her skin she was so white.

The last time either twin could remember her looking so upset was when she heard the news about Katrina hitting New Orleans. And even then she didn't look like she did now, like she was a step away from falling over in a dead faint.

Kate reached for the glass of water on the tray and held it up to her, "Here, Brooke. Drink this and take a deep breath." She obediently took a drink and took a shaky breath; but it was several minutes before she had stopped shaking long enough to talk.

"Randi's pregnant."

Both women silently looked at one another over her head, shocked at her words.

That was _not_ what they were expecting her to say.

She looked up at them and gave them a wan smile, "She was artificial inseminated right before Christmas, she told me to keep it a secret until she was further along. That was when she planned to tell everyone. But the cat's out of the bag now." She leaned forward to rest her arms on the table, her head held in her hands. She was silent for long moment; neither could see her expression through her curtain of curly hair. Finally, she lifted her head and closed her eyes.

"She called to tell me why she has been acting so weird the last couple of weeks. The clinic she went to switched on her and she found out today who the donor they used was." She opened her eyes then, her expression unreadable from so many emotions coming through them. She smiled, then started laughing and continued to laugh until tears ran down her face and they both looked at her like she was totally nuts, which wasn't all that far from the truth after the whooper she had just been told.

"It's Jesse Mathews. Two-Bit Mathews's son."

She continued to laugh while they gaped at her. "Ha, ha, my-my daughter is pregnant with Two-Bit's Mathews's grandchild! I'm going to share a grandchild with him!"

She howled with laughter.

Kate picked up the water glass and sniffed then took a sip. It wasn't alcohol so she wasn't drunk. Val looked at her concerned, "Brooke, honey. Are you sure you haven't been drinking today?" She shook her head and stopped laughing, then slapped her hands down on the table and pushed herself off the stool, "No, but I'm fixin to be."

With that she walked over to the cooler where Val kept the wine for the restaurant and brought a wine glass out of the cabinet above it. She popped the cork and poured herself a glass while she talked.

"I'm thirty-nine years old and by my fortieth birthday I'm going to be called Granny. And I'm going to be sharing that grandchild with- if what you girls are telling me is true and if he hasn't changed over the years- a man that is a big-mouthed, wise-cracking nutcase, with a blonde fetish. I need to get drunk today." And with that she drained the glass in one gulp, and then poured herself another glass.

Val shrugged and went over to the case and pulled two more glasses down and poured herself one. She looked over at Kate expectantly. She sighed and poured herself a glass. "It's five o'clock somewhere," she said. Both women nodded and she held her glass out and they did the same.

"To our kids. May their own one day drive them to insanity as they have us." Clinking glass was followed by "Amen."

* * *

Randi stayed the rest of the day in the apartment and did what she did best when she was stressed-baked. So far she had baked a double fudge cake, two platefuls of cinnamon raisin cookies and had been in the middle of scavenging the kitchen for more ingredients when she heard "Good Lord, Randi!"

She looked up from the bottom cabinet she had her head in. Jane and Sam both were standing in the kitchen doorway, taking in the floor covered counter and floor, the dirty and clean bowls and baking pans in the sink and the only clean spot on the counter top. She didn't even hear them unlock the door, she ran a flour-covered hand through her hair; she must be losing her touch.

That was when they directed their attention to her, and the shocked looks faded to barely suppressed grins. She looked down at herself and silently groaned. She had more flour on her than the counter did.

Flour and what looked like a mix of cinnamon and chocolate sprinkled her t-shirt and jeans like a airbrush effect. Sam helped her up, touching her cheek and came back with a streak of brown, she stuck her finger in her mouth.

"Hmm, you've been making your famous double fudge chocolate cake haven't you?"

Jane sat down at the table and took a cookie from the top of the pile and took a bite.

"And your cinnamon raisin cookies. Are you trying to butter us up?"

She sighed and sank into the chair across from her, "No, I've been de-stressing. Ever since this morning my nerves have been shot. I thought when Lex told me what she found I would be…I don't know, relieved? I mean, I finally know who it is and the irony of it is he's someone I know." She sighed and shook her head at the irony of it all.

Sam looked up from the dirty dishes she was putting in the dishwasher. "You do?"

She nodded, looking at wall in front of her. She got up and went to the sink and took the sponge from the holder and started cleaning off the counters and stove. They looked at one another; she seemed nervous which was very unlike Randi. This was a woman that had stayed in one position for hours at a time and it never bothered her. Yet, here she was flitting around the kitchen like a nervous cat.

"Randi?"

She kept scrubbing at a spot on the stovetop, either ignoring her or wasn't paying attention. Finally, Sam walked to her side and took it out of her hand; she finally looked up and saw a play of emotions playing across her face. "Randi, is there something you want to tell us?"

She sighed and nodded, looking at the floor. "The donor is Jesse."

Sam's jaw dropped.

Jane dropped the cookie she was eating.

Both looked at her in shocked silence. Jane pushed her chair back, the chair making a scraping sound on the linoleum floor and she walked over to stand on the other side of her and looked at her face, looking thoughtful at her. "Jesse. As in Jesse Mathews? Two-Bit's Jesse?"

She nodded.

She leaned her head against the range hood over the stove and sighed, "He was a donor at the clinic I went to. He donated a couple of years ago and a little over a month ago he asked them to get rid of it and that was when the mix up happened. Someone got rid of my guy's and used Jesse's instead." Both were silent as they processed this bit of news.

"And you've told Jesse," Jane stated.

She nodded. "We both agreed to the paternity test once I reached my fourteenth week. Until then," She tapped her nails against the stovetop, "we're going to play it by ear. He told me his dad knows about it, so there's no use in trying to keep it a secret."

They were all silent for a long time before Jane spoke up, "Ren, why don't you go take a shower and we'll finish cleaning up here." She shook her head, "No, you guys go on and get ready, I know you both have plans. I'll clean up here." They both shook their heads, "No, actually after you left lunch today we called Ben and Pete and told them we had a last minute change of plans and were going to order a pizza and spend the night with you. They said they understand." She arched a brow, "And they were okay with it?" Jane nodded while Sam looked away, pretending a interest a spot on the wall.

"Oh-oh. Sam, I didn't mess any plans you and Ben had did I? Was he upset over you changing plans?"

She looked surprised and shook her head, "No, if he had been that upset over me wanting to spend time with my sisters I would have told him to go screw himself.

No, but he did ask me to give you a message. He said he was going over to the shooting range tomorrow and asked would you mind going with him." She frowned at her, "Why did he ask that?"

She shrugged, "He said he heard you were on SWAT back home and I guess he wants to see how SEAL and SWAT differ in their shooting. You know how guys are."

She gave Sam a suspicious look, she was omitting something. Then it suddenly it hit her.

"You told him I was a SWAT sniper didn't you?"

She didn't deny it.

"Damn. Sam why did you let it slip? You know every time someone hears it they either want to see what I can do or shy away from me."

Sam looked at her in surprise, "Ren, why are you always upset about having to tell people about what you doing for a living? Your good at what you do, and you have saved a lot of people over the years. Don't dismiss it or be ashamed of it." She swallowed back a retort and took a breath to calm herself.

"I think I'll take you guys up on your offer to take that shower. I'm going to get my pjs and go on." She walked into the living room and grabbed a set of nightclothes out of her bag and headed toward the bathroom. She hopped in the shower and thought about what Sam said. In some ways she was right, but in others she couldn't be farther from the truth. She didn't save lives; she took them.

Sam heard the water turn on as and looked over at Jane. "Do you know why she always gets her panties in a knot whenever one of us brings up her job? It's like she's ashamed of it." Jane paused in mid-sweep. "Having to take a life-whether they deserve it or not-is not something all people relish, Sam. And when you've taken as many as Randi, I'd say it's given her a jaded look on life as well as a certain amount of shame."

* * *

Sam paused in the middle of putting dishes up to think about that. In the last couple of years Randi had seemed to become more bitter and jaded, Sam had thought it was one of those hazards of being a cop, but now she wasn't so sure. She turned to Jane, "I think I get were your coming from, Sis." Neither said anything else as they finished cleaning the kitchen.

Sam had just sat down on the couch when she heard a knock at the door. She looked at her watch and looked over at Jane. The pizza guy said it would take twenty minutes to be here; Jane had only called four minutes ago. In a flash she was on her feet and had her service pistol in her hand as she walked to the door and look out the peephole. And to her surprise, Soda and Steve were standing on the other side of the door. She tucked her gun in the back of her jeans and unlocked the door to let them in.

Jane discreetly sheathed her knife at her back and greeted them though she wasn't surprised why they were here. After Soda saw the picture of Mikey this morning she figured he would have questions. Steve held up a small paper bag, "Meg thought Randi might need this. They heard we were heading in your direction and asked us to give it to her." They glanced at one another; the guys were all going over to Two-Bit's bar tonight to help out since some of his staff were out sick. It was all the way downtown. They had another reason for coming.

They gestured for them to set down; they were all silent for a while, when suddenly a sound broke the silence. Both looked toward the hall where the bathroom was, Jane and Sam were trying not to laugh at their startled expressions. They could clearly hear Randi wailing out a Gretchen Wilson song from the bathroom. Steve looked at them pained, "Does she always sing like that?" They both laughed and Jane said, "No, actually she's can sing good, she's just being a goof." Neither looked convinced. Soda pulled something out of his jacket pocket and set it on the coffee table. She could see it was this year's school picture of Mikey. She knew what they both were thinking. They thought he was Jane's son, and he was all except in blood.

"You said this was your son, why isn't he here with you, Jane?" She leaned forward and took the picture gently in her hands and touched it with much love. After a moment she looked back up at them and spoke. "I wasn't lying when I said Mikey is my son. I just left out he's my foster son. I'm not allowed to take him out of the state so until his adoption is final my mom is his temporary foster mom." Both men looked at her in shock. "But he looks just like Johnny did at that age," Steve said, shock written all over his face. She nodded, she saw it too when Steve first showed her a picture of her dad when he was little. But because of their coloring most people didn't ask twice when she introduced him as her son. "I know. I didn't know much about his parents except his father had dark hair and eyes like he does, the rest I assumed he got from them both." They looked at her puzzled. She took a deep breath and prepared to tell how she first met the little boy.

Randi was still towel drying her hair when she came out of the bathroom and heard Jane talking in the living room. She walked to the end of the hallway and saw Steve and Soda sitting across from her and Sam. For some reason, she hung back in the hall where she couldn't be seen and listened to her talk.

"The first time I met Mikey it was when I had been a uniformed officer and had been called to a fire in progress. I was the first to arrive on scene and found the house engulfed in flames. A neighbor saw the house catch fire and called 911, but she hadn't seen the young woman or her young son come out of the house and she heard them come home earlier that night." She stopped to take a breath as the memories came over her….

_She stopped to a screeching halt in front of the flaming house and called in her status. But just as she was going to wait for backup and the fire truck to come a woman in a house coat came running up to her. "Oh thank God you're here! I saw Cara and her son come home but I haven't seen either of them come out of there." _

_She jerked her head up and looked at the woman closely. "How old is the boy?" The woman shook her head, "I-I don't know, two or three maybe."_

_She looked behind her then looked back at the blazing house, then looked at the neighbor. She had a decision to make; either she waited for rescue to come and possibly save the family too late, or go in now and possibly get them out before the house collapsed in on itself._

_She made her decision. _

_She ushered the woman to the other side of the patrol car, "Stay here and wait for the fire department to come. Tell them Officer Cade went in." _

_Before the woman could utter another word she went running up the front yard and put all her weight into the door as she slammed into it. _

_She ducked into the flaming house, feeling the intense heat of the flames around her. She kept her face low to the ground and from as much of the smoke as possible; praying she remembered all they trained her in at the academy. She crawled through the smoke-filled room and saw the furniture was starting to smolder, she had to hurry._

_She was near the end of the room that would lead into the hall when she came across something. She pulled back slightly and saw it was woman. She had been beaten so badly she doubted the woman's own mother would have recognized her. She had also been shot in the chest. She felt for a pulse when the woman jerked and drew a sharp breath. She looked over at her through blackened eyes. She started to speak but instead coughed up blood and Jane knew then she wouldn't make it. She tilted her head slightly and rested it in her lap. "Ma'am. Your alright, I'm a police officer. A neighbor saw the fire, is your son nearby?" She nodded weakly; she grasped her arm with a surprisingly strong grip. _

"_S-save m-my son. D-d-don't let his fa-father take him." She nodded and gently wiped the blood from her mouth, she could already see the life seeping out of the woman's eyes. "Don't worry, ma'am; I'll find him, you just sit tight."_

_She shook her head, "Save Mikey." She went limp in her arms and she saw her eyes stare sightlessly back at her. She closed her eyes and said a silent prayer for her even as she went to move through the rest of the house. She had to find the boy and get out of here. She came to the last door of the hall that had a smoldering stuffed animal on the front of it and felt of the door and found it hot but not as hot as she expected. She slammed it open and looked around for any signs of a child, she was about to move to another room when she heard a small whimper. She allowed herself a flare of hope and called out, "Mikey! Mikey, are you in here?" _

_No answer. _

_She tried again, "Mikey, your Mama sent me to get you, sweetheart." The fire was roaring around her so loud she almost missed the little voice call out, "Mommy?" She drew a sharp breath out the voice and crawled over to the direction she heard it and saw a little boy laying in a corner of the room. He was hunched in a little ball, his dark eyes looking up at her. She crouched in front of him, "Yeah, Mikey. I'm Jane and your mom sent me to get you out of here. Come on, we have to hurry." He looked at her for a long, agonizing minute before he went into her arms. She picked him up as gently as she could and stood. She ran through the house and found the kitchen that led to the back door. She was almost there when she was tackled from behind and Mikey was thrown from her grasp. He tumbled across the floor and laid still. She turned and kicked her attacker back; he was big and burly, his dark eyes glaring menacingly down at her. _

_She saw a gun by his side, "You ain't leavin' with my kid, bitch. If I can't have him no one can." He raised the gun and she saw him aim, but it wasn't at her. She glanced back behind her and saw it was Mikey he aimed at. Before she could think about it, she had her gun in her hand and was firing it before his finished firing. A neat hole blossomed between his eyes and he fell back in a lifeless heap. She heard a groaning sound over head and looked up; a bullet hole was in the ceiling of the already collapsing house. She went on instinct and rolled across the floor and was covering Mikey as a piece of the ceiling and roof came crashing down where she had been. She had to get them out of here before the damn roof caved in on them. She picked him up and saw a deep cut slash across his forehead, she cradled his head to her when he started whimpering._

"_Shh, it's okay, Mikey. I'm getting you out of here." She could only pray she could keep her promise. The laundry room that the back door was in was thick with black smoke and flames licking up the walls and laundry left in the hamper. And the door unlocked from the outside. She took a deep breath and prayed for courage. She covered her hand with the sleeve of her uniform and slammed her fist through the glass of the door, breaking it out and felt around frantically for the knob. It was hot, but she stand it long enough to turn it, she slammed her weight against it to open and again til it slammed opened with a hard thud and she stumbled out of the house and breathed in the fresh air, coughing as she did so. _

_She stumbled off to the side yard and was half way to the fence when she heard a shattering sound. She looked back and saw the windows had blown out. She made herself move the last few feet to the fence before her legs began to give. Hands reached out and took the boy from her grasp as she sank to her knees in the grass. _

_She looked up and saw a paramedic put the boy on a waiting stretcher and another come up to her and helped her to her feet and set her on another one. She looked up at a crashing sound saw the roof was caving in on the burning house_….

Soda and Steve looked at her; both men were white as ghosts. By then Randi had joined them and sat in silence next the Sam as they both remembered the call from the hospital that night that Jane had been a fire. She had had severe smoke inhalation and a cut on her side that needed stitches. Mikey had a small concussion from falling and hitting his head and some bruised ribs. Both women were drawn from their thoughts when a throat was cleared.

Steve and Soda shared a uncomfortable look for a moment, "Jane, Sam. You heard us say Dal and Johnny died the night you girls were born. Dal was gunned down by the police and Johnny died from his burns." They both nodded. Steve cleared his throat, "We didn't tell you the whole story because, and well to be honest it's still hard to talk about. But in case you haven't heard it from around town. It's time you found out what happened that caused it."

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and patience! Sorry it took so long to get this one out; my poor little laptop flat-lined on me and I've been having to rewrite what was lost when it shut down on me. I'm so sad about it-I've had that thing since my seventeenth birthday!_


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or characters that aren't mine. They belong to S.E. Hinton and authors respectively.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen

January was over and February was here and Jane looked around the street she was walking and saw the ice on the street and sidewalks glistened like crystal in the early morning light. It had been a couple of weeks since Steve had told her and Sam how Dad and Uncle Dallas came to an early death, and she still had a hard time wrapping her mind around it. Her father couldn't have been a killer, they had to be wrong. From the stories her mother told her about him and how she pictured him over the years she had him sitting on a pedestal. To imagine her quiet, sweet father a killer, it just didn't sound right, even when Pony himself talked to her and told her what happened that night.

And that was what led her to her search here. She looked up at the large brick building that took up a good piece of the area, and craved on the front of the building in smooth stone read, 'Tulsa Public Library'.

She walked up the steps and pushed the outer door open and walked in to the slightly warmer lobby. She walked through the automatic doors that led to the library front desk where a seated woman was. She guessed her to be in her mid-thirties and would probably be around five-foot-four standing. The woman looked up at her and smiled, "Hello, I'm Rachel can I help you?"

Jane took off her gloves and tucked them in her coat pocket and smiled back at the woman, "I hope so, I need to find a newspaper from September 1981. Do you carry anything like that?" Rachel swiveled in her chair to the computer in front of her and typed in the information she gave her. She looked over the computer screen for a brief moment before she looked back at her. "Yes, we do. The computers containing newspaper records are in the second room on your left down there," she pointed to her left down a long hall. She smiled her thanks and walked down in the direction she indicated. She glanced at the clock on the wall above her, she still had another four hours before she met with Pete today. She had the day off and had promised Pete she would met him for lunch since she cancel their date last time. A computer in the back against the wall was free and she walked over to it sitting down and booted it up, waiting for the program to come up. In a few minutes she had 1981 newspapers up and was skimming through till she found September. And there in black and white a September 18th headline read: "TEENAGE BOY FOUND MURDERED IN LOCAL PARK."

She read the headline twice before it made sense. She had to read the article twice before it hit home. Steve, Soda and Pony were telling the truth. She wanted to turn away from the screen and run as fast as she could from here, but she made herself sit there and read every article that been printed that whole week her father and Pony had been in Windrixville. Til she got to the last one, where it mentioned when the services would take place for the late John Cade and Dallas Winston and when the trial for the murder of Robert Sheldon Jr. would take place.

She sat there for a long time before she moved and when she did she saw most of the computers were empty now and she found she had a dilemma. As hard as it was for her to hear this about Dad, it would be even harder on her mom to hear it. Randi told her in secret that after she heard about her dad, her mom stayed in her room for two straight days, crying.

She had heard her mother say over the years when she was asked out and declined, she just wasn't interested in dating. But she knew the truth: even after all this time her mother was still in love with her father.

* * *

Pete looked down at his watch and then back up at the restaurant door. Jane still wasn't here and he only had a thirty-minute lunch break and she was already fifteen minutes late. He took out his cell and turned it on and started to dial her number when he heard the door slam and saw her come rushing in. She hurried over to the table and sank into the chair across from him. "Sorry, I'm late. I left my car at the apartment so I had to walk from the library," she said in a breathless voice. He nodded and sat there watching her while she looked over her menu. There was something different about her today. Her hair was windblown from the wind outside, but her hair usually had that look. She looked up at him then back down at her menu; that was when he realized what was wrong.

Her eyes, they were dark and long-lashed and usually had either a calm or irritated look in them. Today they held a sad, almost agonized look. He reached his hand out and took hers in it. She looked up at him in surprise, then it changed to a softer look. But before either could say anything the server came up asking for their orders. While they waited for him to come back with the food, Jane busied herself taking something out of her purse. She turned back around in her seat and slammed something on the table. He looked down at it and saw a photocopy of an old newspaper sitting on the table. It was a headline of the Bob Sheldon murder. His father, Johnny and Dallas were on the front page. She shuffled the papers till a close-up of Johnny's picture came into view. She pointed to the white scar that was a stark contrast to the darkness of the rest of his face. "Bob Sheldon gave him this scar didn't he?" He looked up at her, "How'd you know?"

She looked up at him, "Mom told me that a few weeks before she met dad, he had been brutally beaten by a group of socs, one of them left a long gash on his face that left a long white scar. Like this."

She pointed to the scar on the boy's face. She leaned forward and lowered her voice so none of the surrounding tables could hear her.

"I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about my dad, but from what mom told me and what the guys have told me, he would have to have a seriously strong reaction to ever pull a knife and use it, whatalone kill someone with it."

He nodded; his dad had said basically the same thing. Johnny Cade was no coward when it came to a fight, but he didn't go looking for one and he hadn't that fateful night.

It had come looking for him and his dad.

A thought suddenly occurred to him; he looked at Jane and caught her attention from the article she was reading. "Jane, I have a question for you, and I'd appreciate your honesty. Do you blame my dad for what happened to yours?"

She was silent for a long moment; she opened her mouth to say something when their orders came. She shut her mouth and stayed silent til he left. Pete was starting on his sandwich when she spoke, "Do I blame your dad for mine dying?" She shook her head. "No. I could, but I was always raised to believe everything happens for a reason. I don't know why he had to die so young, but I just have to believe there was a reason behind it." She gave a nonchalant shrug and took bite of her food. "Who knows, maybe one of those kids he saved went on to great things because of him."

* * *

Later that day Alan O'Connell looked up at a knock on his door and saw Jane Cade standing at it. She was dressed in jeans, a red sweater and a heavy black coat, her badge hooked on her belt loop. She came in and said, "I need clearance to get into the solved cases storage. I'd like to look over a old case if it's okay." He set the folder he was looking in down, and studied her from his seated position. There was something different about her, she seemed tensed, but it was so subtle you would have to look for it to see. "What case do you need?" She was silent as she walked to his desk and took a sheaf of papers out of her coat pocket and opened them and laid them in front of him. A newspaper headline with a picture of Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston stared back at him. "My father's case," she said softly.

He pulled the photocopy closer to him and looked at it, once again surprised at how much Jane resembled Cade. But what surprised him more was how much she resembled Isabella Cade, Johnny's mother.

Most forget Johnny got his looks from her and Jane was a younger, more petite version of her. He snapped out of his thoughts and looked back at the paper then at her; he could understand her wanting to know her father. But he didn't know if this was the wise way to do it. "Jane, are you sure about that? This isn't an unsolved and you're reviewing the facts. This is about your old man's case."

She nodded, "I'm sure, Captain. I came here to learn about my father, good and bad. And-" She swallowed hard before she spoke again, her eyes shining with a emotion he wouldn't thought she would consciously show. "-besides, my father killed once and that was to protect a friend and himself. I've killed a lot more and for far less heroic reasons than that."

"Jane," he said gently. She silently looked at him, he stopped, sighed and took out a slip of paper and scribbled out a code to get into the storage archives. He handed it to her and started to speak again when she turned to leave, "Jane, I read the file on you." He held up a hand to stop her surprised protest, "I called in a favor to see it, and you did what you had to do and that isn't easy for anyone. As for why you did, everyone has their breaking point, that night was yours. I can't say I might not have acted any differently than you did." She slipped the copies in her pocket and fisted the paper the code was on, she nodded to him as she walked out the door. "Thank, Alan. It's good to know not everyone wants to be high-and-mighty and say they wouldn't have done it." She left then and he watched her walk out of the squad room doors and out into the hall.

Jane arrived at the storage building that housed old solved cases. Hoping her father's case wasn't one of them that would be taken to the incinerator as some were done. She walked in and showed the clerk her badge and the code Alan had given her. He led her to the back into a enormous room filled with metal shelves, some reaching as high as the ceiling and others were sparse with no boxes sitting on them. They walked the first three aisles when they stopped halfway down it; he stood up on a tall ladder and reached for a box halfway up the tall shelf. He walked halfway down it and handed her the box.

She took it gently in both hands, unaware she was gently touching the box like it was a precious treasure. But the clerk saw it and was puzzled about her reaction, she acted like she had all the answers to the world in that box. She looked up at him, a unreadable expression on her face and thanked him saying she would let herself out. Leaving him there puzzling over her weird behavior.

Jane arrived back at the apartment, Sam was no were to be seen. Thankfully, Sam had decided to go down to the shooting range with Ben and Randi today. He had taken Randi out there ever since he saw her practice shots on the target range. He had seen her do a shot she only did when she felt like showing off and felt capable of hitting the target. There was a rumor of a shoot in the sniper world known as the half-mile shot; only a small handful of men in the world could make the shot and Randi's grandfather had been one of them. He passed it down to her and she was one of the very few women in the world capable of making it.

* * *

Jane moved the stack of magazines off the coffee table and set the box on top of it and with trembling hands opened it. Inside were three folders, several evidence reports, and other things she couldn't make out from the bottom of the box. She took out the first of the folders and opened it with careful hands. Inside it was a report and a small stack of crime-scene photos. She saw in the first photo a sprawled figure on the ground in front of the fountain in the park a few blocks from here. In the second she saw a close-up of the body and the wound. The clothes were dirty and covered with blood, but it didn't detract from the fact they had been designer label and came from money. The wound was a deep bloody gash in his stomach and left the light colored shirt turning a darker color with the blood staining it.

She found herself staring at the boy's face for a long moment; studying his face trying to figure out how someone that looked so innocent and young could do what he had done and pushed another boy to take his life in one desperate move to save another's life. The boy's face told her nothing, and that was what he had been; a boy trying to be a man and going about it the wrong way.

She thumbed through the pictures alittle longer before she looked at the autopsy and the leading detective's report. Autopsy showed he had been stabbed in the abdominal with a sharp object and had bled out causing his death nearly instanteously. A major artery in his abdominal had been hit when the blade went through. So even if her father had called 911 and helped arrived immediately, Bob would have died before helped arrived or if he had been lucky, died on the way to the hospital. But what really surprised her was further down the M.E.'s report was what was found internally. His liver showed significant damage, either by long-term use of alcohol or drug use.

She recalled Pony saying the guy had been drunk when he and dad went to walk the two girls home earlier that night, and was still roaring drunk later that night when he confronted them. He must have been a long-term alcoholic, but that didn't make much sense. Liver damage like that took years to happen. She looked back up at the top of the report and saw his birthday. She did a mental count and realized he had turned eighteen shortly before he died.

"That meant he had to have had alcohol problems for years, maybe since before puberty," she murmured to herself. The kid had been a dead man walking before her dad ever touched him, judging by the coroner's findings he would have needed a liver transplant before he turned thirty if he continued on the road he had been on. She'd bet noone outside of the family and the coroner knew about that part of the autopsy. It would mean Bob Sheldon wasn't as much the golden boy as he and others would have him portrayed.

She shook herself out that train of thought, and looked briefly over the detective's report and found he had been a good detective if not a harsh one. She looked at the name and made a mental note to found the detective and ask him some questions that weren't answered in the report.

She closed the folder and set it aside and reached into the box for another folder. In it was photos of the murder weapon: a six-inch switchblade. It was black-handled and had a rough surface on the handle and opened from the side. She remembered Two-Bit saying one time he had swiped it for her dad after he recovered from being jumped. He got it for him as protection, thinking a threat would be all it would be used for. He never dreamed it would be taken out and used, whatalone to kill with it. She looked at the photo closely and saw blood was on it, but not as much as she would have thought, course he could have cleaned it off.

Even innocent people did that, it was human nature to clean up. She made quick work of the folder and the contents before moving on to the third and final file. She opened it and instantly began to shake; inside it was pictures of her father, he was in a hospital bed and it was clear these were the injuries sustained in the fire the guys told her about.

He had an oxygen tube in his nose, and had would looked like a sunburn on his dark face, his hair was shorter than it was in the picture in the newspaper. And it was grease-free, hanging over his forehead and into his closed eyes in soft black wisps. A hospital gown and bandages covered most of his skin, but it was clear he had been burned in the fire. With a trembling hand, she flipped it over and went on to the next one. Her stomach lurched and tears stung her eyes as she saw his back and saw first up how damaged his back truly was. Pony had told her the doctors had told them, even if her father had lived, he would have been in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The flaming beam had fallen across his back and broke it; his spine had been severely injured in the process. His back had a long wide burn across his middle back where the beam fell and it was clear this was were the majority of his third degree burns were. Blisters and red blotchy skin covered more of his back were the hot wood fell and the surrounding area was burnt or blistered by the extreme heat. But what was possibly the worst was how the beam had broken his back. She could see despite the burns, dark ugly bruises were clear through were it had fallen on him and there was a noticeable dip in his back were it hit him.

Something wet splashed on her hand and she brought her hand up to her face and found it wet with tears. It was like a dam broke then, she shut the folder and pushed it away, holding her face in her hands, sobbing. She cried for the pain her father must have went through not just from this injury but, through his whole young life of someone always hurting him.

And for the first time in her life, she hated her mother for being too scared to tell her dad about her and running away. Maybe if she had told him, he would still be alive. She could have him sitting here next to her, instead of reading about the injury that led to his death.

* * *

Sam looked around the house that was now Ben's. Two weeks ago, his Grandmother Shepard died in her sleep at the nursing home his dad, aunt and uncle had to put her in after her debilitating stroke. In her will she left it to Ben and stated her kids take whatever they want and spilt it up amongst themselves.

Not there was much left to begin with, she noticed.

Other than a wore out couch and chair and a few pieces upstairs, the house was for the most part empty. Ben gave a light kick to the couch and a wave of dust came up, causing them both to have a coughing fit. When they went into the hallway away from all the dust, both could breathe alittle better and their coughing stopped. "God, when did she clean in here last; when the Vietnam War ended?"

She fanned the dust away from her face, and wrinkled her nose at the mildewy smell coming from either the carpet underneath their feet or the walls around them. He shrugged and pulled them further back from the smell and dust. "I don't know, Dad said even after her last husband died and she got help, she wasn't much of a housekeeper like she used to be." She ducked in one of the bedrooms; the mildew smell wasn't as strong in here as it was in the hall. "What did she need help with?" He followed her in and looked around the room, trying to decide what to do with the place. "Dad said she became a big alcoholic after my real grandfather died in a car crash when my uncle was a toddler. She remarried a few months later and well, let's just say over the years she became the divorce lawyers around here's best customer."

"That many times, huh?"

He looked in the dresser along one wall and found it empty save for a couple of men's clothes and a few old empty beer bottles. "On last count, she had been married six or seven times."

Sam whirled around and looked at him, stunned.

"Six or seven times?!"

She shook her head, "Mine died before we were born. But mom said they were really in love, married right after granddad came back from Vietnam and had mom and Aunt Val a year later. Mom said after Granddad died, Gram seemed to have too; not so much in body but in heart. She died a couple of months after he did."

He shook his head at that; his parents had met when they were teenagers, his mom had him and kept it a secret. Till she went to his dad for help when he had been kidnapped.

He had been three and had a vague memory of someone grabbing him from his bed and keeping him in the dark and tied up all the time. After they found him, his parents married and his mother told him who Tim really was. He was jerked back to the present when he heard Sam talking, "You know, if she was anything like mine was, I'll bet she had a treasure trove up in the attic or in the basement." She moved back into the hall and looked up at the ceiling. He moved behind her, feeling her warm body heat in the cold house. He put a hand at her back and directed her to the back of the house, "She had an attic, it's here in the back room. I don't know if she had anything up here, but it's worth a shot." She nodded and zipped up her jacket while he reached for the attic stairs.

"You never know, right after we moved back to Savannah us kids snuck up to the attic one day when our moms were at work. We found Gram's wedding dress, Granddad's dress uniform, stuff that had been in Gram's family since the Civil War even." He shook his head, "I doubt, we'll find that here. Dad said she never really was sentimental." He walked up the steps first and pulled himself up into the attic, helping Sam up as she came up behind him. They looked around the attic in silence. There were so many boxes you'd have thought they stepped into a storage unit rather than the attic. All were stacked neatly and what looked like alphabetical order.

Sam walked around the boxes and stopped at one. She turned back to him and smiled, "Looks like she was more sentimental than you thought. Come're." He walked over to where she was standing and crouched down to see the box she was pointing to. "Sara's Wedding Dress, August 1960,"he read out loud.

He smiled up at her, "Huh. This must be Grand's dress when she married Gramp. Dad was born in November of '61 and he was born alittle after a year they had been married, so this must be it." He stood up and took the boxes stacked on top of it off, and opened it. Inside was the dress, he took it out with care, surprised it didn't fall apart when he picked it up.

"She must have had it preserved so your aunt Angela could were it one day," Sam observed when the yellowed dress didn't disintegrate in his hands. He nodded absently. Only there was no way his tiny aunt could have fit into it once he held it up at full length.

"I doubt it. This thing would have swallowed my aunt whole if she tried putting it on. Look at it, I never realized Grand was so tall when she was younger." She looked at her curiously.

"She developed osteoporosis when I was a still a baby, she was hunched over by the time I was old enough to remember," he explained. Sam nodded and took one side of it and held it to her, measuring the silky sleeve against her own arm. "She must have been close to my height then, judging by how long this sleeve is." She held it away from her, looking at it.

It didn't resemble her Gram's dress at all. Gram's had been floor-length and puffy with little cap sleeves and tulle-stuff over the skirt so it looked more a ball gown than a wedding dress.

This one was floor-length and had been white, but like Gram's it had yellowed slightly over the years despite the preservation. But the similarities ended there: this one was slimmer through the skirt and ended with a slight flare at the bottom, the neck and bodice was made of a thick intricate lace and sprinkled with little pearls along with the hem of the skirt. She handed him the dress and he folded it back into it's cover before putting it back in the box, he looked up and saw Sam standing in front of another box.

Only she frowned at this one, "Hey Ben, check this out." She pulled it from the top and brought it over to him, "It says 'To Curly, I'm sorry I didn't do right by you sooner.'" He frowned at it, taking it from her hands. He started to open it but thought better, it must have been only for his uncle's eyes if Grand addressed it to him. He set it near the attic steps, "I'll give it to Dad to give to him. Curly's heading out of town tomorrow for something." She shrugged and went to move through more boxes. She stopped at one and pulled it out to get a better look at it, the top had handwriting on it, but it had faded so much with time she couldn't read what it said, so she opened the top and was surprised at what she saw inside. She looked up and saw Ben opening a box and taking out what looked like baby clothes. "Hey, Ben. You might want to see this."

He looked up from what he was doing and saw Sam's widened eyes and walked over to see what she found. The top had faded handwriting on it, but that wasn't what held her attention. Inside nestled on top of a military uniform was a small wooden box. He reached down and took it out and flipped the case open, inside it was a Purple Heart. He read the inscription on it and looked back at Sam with wide eyes. "It was my Gramp's, it says here he was awarded the Purple Heart for risking his life to help a village of Vietnamese civilians get to safety." She pulled out the uniform and stared at the pins on it before setting it down next to her and going back to the box. In the bottom was a collection of black and white photos, a sheathed bowie knife and a brown leather-bound journal, she set both aside before she reached back in and pulled out pieces of metal.

It wasn't until she had all the pieces out and set close to one another she realized they went together. Gingerly she assembled two pieces, but when they didn't rot in her hands she reached down and put more together. She looked at the assemble piece in her hands and then back at Ben who had picked up the uniform jacket then. He studied the pins attached to the front of it and the shoulders and muttered, "Looks like Gramp was a Marine in 'Nam and was pretty high up, these are the markings for a 2nd Lieutenant." He looked up at her then and his eyes widened when he saw what was in her hands. It was a assemble rifle, broke down into small pieces so better to conceal.

"It looks like you weren't the only sniper in the family, Ben. This was an unassembled rifle in the bottom of the box." She set it down and dusted off her hands and stood, smiling at him. "Looks like you had more of a treasure trove up here than you thought." He nodded, "It definitely seems that way. The question is: Does Dad and them know about this stuff up here?"

It was a couple of hours later when dusk began to set they called it quits and they loaded a few boxes into his dad's old Chevy to take over to his parents's house. He planned to camp out here tonight once he got his gear and came back. He looked at Sam bent over securing a box to the backseat and felt his muscles tighten at the sight of her leaning over, giving him a generous view of her long jean-covered legs and rounded backside.

He was shocked at his fast reaction to her; to her all together. He hadn't reacted like this to a woman since high school, and even then not like this. He had been affected like this since the first hour he met her when she was in the police station giving her statement while he was sitting in a holding cell. He was drawn from his thoughts when she stood up and turned to him, "Well, I'd better head back. Jane said she had some errands to do today and Steve invited us over to his house for supper tonight so I'm going to see if she's back home." He nodded and held out his hand, "I'm going over to Dad and Mom's place and maybe come back here for the night. I appreciate your help, Sam."

She hesitated for a second before she took his hand; a shock shuddered through him at her touch. He looked back at her and saw she was as surprised as he was at the feeling. Before he could stop himself, he drew her clasped hand to him, seeing the blue of her eyes and the dark lashes framing them. He cupped her face in his large hand and brought his lips down to hers. It started out as a light kiss, but quickly turned passionate. He wrapped his arms around her, one gliding down her back, pressing her soft curves against his hard planes, his other hand pulling the rubber band from her hair and combing the long waves out, holding her head in place while his mouth explored hers.

Her hands moved up his chest, wrapping arms firmly around his neck. He gasped when she involuntarily touched a spot on his neck that drove him wild and she took advantage of his open mouth to touch her tongue to his, it was like someone set him on fire.

But reality intruded in the form of a car door slamming nearby. She pulled back, breathing heavy through kiss-swollen lips, desire making her eyes flash and darken. She pulled out of his embrace, "I-I should go now. I'll see later, Ben."

Then she turned and left, taking long strides down the sidewalk and quickly disappearing out of sight. Leaving him standing there in the driveway, staring after her with two things clear to him: he had never had been turned on like he was right now by a simple kiss. And there was no way he could do a long-distance relationship with this woman. He was royally screwed and didn't give a damn.

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews! I'm currently using my mother's computer to put this chapter out, but I'm taking mine to a computer place later this week to see what's wrong. So hopefully, it won't have any thing major wrong with it. If it needs to be replaced, I'll be happy to take contributions for a new laptop! Just kidding!_


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively.

* * *

Chapter Fifteen

"You're an idiot, Winston," Sam muttered to herself. She walked the three blocks to Steve and Meg's house, taking that time to think about that kiss. And to call herself nine kinds of stupid for letting him kiss her. Only she refrained from talking out loud to herself for the most part after she started getting strange looks the first block she walked and called herself a 'stupid, idiotic, nitwit without the sense God gave a canary.'

What in the world processed him to kiss her? "What made _me_ kiss him back?"

And what a kiss! She lightly touched her lips; they still tingled from his. This was a bad idea all around. She did not need another complicated relationship to blow up in her face. Been there, done that, and she still had the t-shirt. It said, 'Don't Be a Schmuck.'

Be his friend? Sure.

Have one or two date-like outings? Eh, what the hell - sure.

But risk another relationship so soon after her last one ended? Not. A. Chance.

Once burned, twice shy. Or in her case, twice burned, triple shy.

She stopped at a mailbox and blinked, the address was Steve's. She didn't even realize she was already at their house. She walked up to the sidewalk and to the driveway, Jane's Mustang was already parked behind Steve's '65 Bel-Air and Meg's Focus. Looked like everyone was already there. And more.

A black car she didn't recognize was parked by the fence on the road. She shrugged and cut through the yard and up to the porch steps. As soon as she opened the door, the warmth enveloped her like a warm blanket and to her surprise; the spicy aroma of gumbo was thick in the air. The screen door slammed shut behind her, startling her out of her thoughts. She turned and shut the front door and walked through the dim living room to the kitchen doorway where she heard voices. She stopped short in the doorway at the sight that greeted her. Jane was nowhere in sight, but sitting at a large table in the corner was Steve and his dark-haired wife, Meg.

Bri, Mike and to her surprise, Randi stood at the stove; Mike and Randi stirring separate pots on the front eyes while Bri took spices down from the cabinet and handing them out as one of them called for them.

Candi stood near the stove with her camcorder, out of their way, but still able to film what was going on. A dark-haired girl that had to be Roxie, sat against the laundry room door in a meditative pose, eyes closed with a headset on her ears. Steve turned his head and saw her; he smiled at her and pushed a chair across from him out from the table. "Have a seat. You're just in time; Mike and Randi are having a gumbo cook-off. He says he can make a spicier gumbo than she can. Randi said she can. Us and the girls are going to be the judges. Can she really cook it spicy?"

She rolled her eyes and nodded, "He better prepare to lose then. She makes hers hot enough to set off smoke alarms. There's a reason she's Cajun. To quote my aunt Brooke, 'We Cajuns don't got blood in our veins we got Tabasco sauce,'" she did a imitation of a Cajun drawl.

Steve laughed and shook his head. "That spicy, huh?" She nodded and grinned, "Oh, yeah. Other than Al and Jane, and of course, Aunt Brooke, no else can eat her food. Too hot."

Randi looked back at her and mimicked her, "At least I don't burn everything I try to cook." Everyone laughed, and she smiled good-naturedly; it was the truth. She learned a long time ago take-out and tv dinners were her friends. "Not true. I can make blackened chicken."

Randi rolled her eyes and turned back to the stove and began to slice a loaf of French bread on a cutting board on the counter next to her. Brushing melted butter on both sides, she stuck three at a time in a large skillet behind her pot on the back eye. Meg craned her neck to see what she was putting on the back eye. "What is that? Garlic bread?" Randi did a so-so gesture with her hand, "Not entirely, it's melted garlic butter with Paprika and Cayenne Pepper. It's something my Grammy used to make me when I was little and I would go over to her house. It really is good. Here. Try it." She took a browned piece out and set it on a napkin and brought it over to the table. She turned back to stove and gave the pot a vigorous stir and added some more paprika and Tabasco sauce to it. Meg tore a piece off and gave it a sniff, Steve watching her. She hid the devious smile curling her lips, and before he realized it she shoved it at his face. She surprised him and he opened his mouth and she shoved the piece of bread at him. He choked before he swallowed it.

He glared at her while he coughed, taking a gulp of his beer. She laughed and jumped into his lap, buzzing him loudly on the lips. "You know, I love you, you big sourpuss." She kissed him again, only this time he returned it. Candi turned her camera in their direction and let out a small shriek, "Ohmigod, their trying for another one! My eyes, they burn!" She closed her camera, and slid dramatically to the floor, one arm over her eyes. They broke away to laugh at her dramatics.

Bri looked down at her, "Candi, while your down there would you mind cleanin' the floor? I think I dropped some salt earlier." She pulled her arm away and glared at her good-naturedly.

Randi tasted a bite of her gumbo and nodded, "A couple of more minutes and it should be done." She looked over at Mike and grinned, "What about you, city boy? Yours almost done?" He glared at her, "Yeah, it's almost there. And I thought New Orleans was a big city too?" She rolled her eyes, "Honey, I grew up in the bayou thirty minutes away from Naw'Orlins. My parents might have lived in the Garden District, but my mama's people all lived out in the bayou forever."

"I used to go gator hunting and crawfishing with my uncles and gathering with my Grammy." Bri looked at her curiously, "Gathering?" She nodded, "Grammy was the resident _traiteur _in the bayou."

Everyone but Mike and Sam looked at her puzzled. Mike looked shocked, "You mean she was a healer?"

She nodded. Steve frowned at her, "What's that you were speaking?" Mike looked back at his dad. "It's Cajun, Dad. It's what most people in New Orleans and the bayou speak." Randi looked impressed; man wasn't as dumb as he looked.

Sam snorted, "Please, tell me you only speak alittle of it. Otherwise it'll be like her and Al. Always talkin' in Cajun." Steve looked at her, "I've been meanin' to ask you about that. What's Al's full name?" She exchanged a grin with Jane who just walked into the room, "His full name is Dallas Brian Winston."

He looked confused, "Were did Al come in at?"

She shrugged, "According to Mom, when me and Jane were first learning to talk we couldn't pronounce Al's full name; all we could say was 'Al'. It kind of stuck over the years."

He looked over at Jane and grinned, "That's how your daddy got his name." She cocked her head at him.

"Pone was still learning how to talk when he first met Johnny, so when he tried to say Johnny Cade, it came out 'Johnnycakes'. We all started calling him that after that."

She smiled, "Sounds like Shelby, right now, I'm 'Ja'." Bri looked over at her, "Who is Shelby? I've heard you guys talk about her, but who is she?"

Randi looked over at Jane and Sam, all looking at one another silently thinking. She spooned the gumbo into small bowls filled with brown rice, and set them on a tray waiting for her. She brought it over to the table and set it next to Mike's. She looked over at Sam and Jane who nodded to her.

She took her wallet from her back pocket and pulled out a wallet-sized picture, sitting it on the table. A man and a little girl stared back at them. "That is our brother Al, and his daughter. Shelby Ann Winston."

Steve choked on his beer when he saw that picture. The guy in the picture was a green-eyed brown-haired version of Dal. And he was holding a little girl that had dark blonde curls and blue-green eyes. In short, she looked like a baby version of Sam.

* * *

Later that night with Randi still holding the reigning champ as gumbo queen, Mike and Bri were driving home in Bri's car. Mike looked over at Bri, "So, when do you want to tell them we bought that house?" She looked over at him and smiled, "When the loan comes through. That way we can totally say we bought it." He nodded and took her hand in his and kissed it, she smiled but didn't take her eyes off the road. They had dated since they were sixteen and moved in together after Bri's nineteenth birthday. To Mike, it didn't seem real they had been living to together for the last four years.

They would be celebrating their anniversary soon, and Mike was thinking about popping the question then. But he wasn't sure just yet. He loved Bri more than anything, but a lot of relationships went sour after marriage entered the picture. He didn't want that for them.

He was brought back to the present when he heard her talking, "I've been thinking about something?"

He grinned at her, "Doubt hurt yourself, hon."

She rolled her eyes and playfully shoved him, "Goof. I was thinking about something Randi said earlier. How her parents lived in the Garden District. Do you remember that time we went to New Orleans and did the whole tourist thing? It was the first time I went with you to go see Mrs. Buffington."

He nodded, remembering it. He had kept in contact with his former group mother until her death last year. Before leaving, they took a detour at Baton Rouge and spent a couple of days sightseeing in New Orleans. "Yeah, I remember. What about it?"  
"You remember the tour to the Garden District, how some of the richest families in New Orleans lived there?" He nodded, suddenly comprehending what she was saying. He wondered if Randi had come from money at one time. She just had this air about her, graceful and commanding all at once. Like those who had money. But that didn't make sense; why become a cop when she had money. Or better yet, why would she become a sniper?

* * *

It was a few minutes before midnight when Tim drove into the cemetery and pulled his truck up behind his brother's beat-up ol' black Ranger. He got out of his truck and walked up the hill and weaved through the headstones.

He knew were he was; it was the same thing every time this year. Half way down one row of headstones laid his brother.

He glanced at the stones as he passed them. Family long gone laid along this row.

Their father's old, nearly faded headstone was the third from the beginning and next to his was his mother's. The dirt was still fresh from her burial, her headstone gleamed new in the moonlight. And three empty plots down from hers, laid Curly.

He was slumped against a bronze-colored headstone, one large hand laying on a smaller one next to it. A bottle of whiskey laid at his side, half-empty. He raised the bottle in the air and took a big gulp, "Happyy Birthday, Celie! I wish you were here with me."

Tim shook his head sadly.

Every February it was like this, Curly would close the diner down for the weekend and come out here. Sometimes he would come out here and stay the whole day, talking to her. Other times, he would just sit there staring at the headstone.

Six years ago he would have come out here and gone on a three-day straight drinking binge. It had been like since his wife died now twelve years ago.

He came out here every year on her birthday and their anniversary, the night she also died.

A drunk driver swerved into their lane as they were coming back from celebrating their first anniversary. Curly couldn't swerve in time to avoid him and they were hit head-on. Their car was crushed from being hit and then flying through the air and landing on it's side near the embankment. Curly had a concussion and a broke arm, Celeste died on her way to the hospital. Their unborn son was born three months premature and died two days after his mother.

Six years ago he came out here on the anniversary Celeste died. Back then, Curly hadn't been sober since the day they buried his son.

He shook his head as he thought of the tiny little boy born too early and lived only two days. He had a mop of curly black hair just like Curly did when he was born and looked like Celie in the face. He was so tiny he could have nearly fit him in the palm of his hand.

He looked around the cemetery.

Any place other than his brother slumped in front of his wife's grave and half drunk. Seeing him like that gave him chills, just as it did a night much like this six years ago. Only instead of the threat of snow, they had gotten the worst snowstorm in ten years.

And instead of holding a half-empty bottle of whiskey, he held their old man's service pistol….

_Tim looked frantically around the headstones, looking for his brother's dark head amongst them. He stopped by his room earlier tonight and found a letter. He wrote he couldn't take Celeste being gone anymore and had decided to join her. _

_Tim knew there was only two places he could be: the cemetery, or the road were the car accident took place. He stopped short at the row that held most of the Shepard clan, there sitting before the headstone, was Curly. Only instead of holding a bottle of liquor like normal, he held their old man's service pistol from 'Nam. _

_Fresh snow crunched under his boots as he approached him, Curly looked up and for the first time since Curly buried his wife and son, his eyes weren't glazed and blood-shot. He looked almost sober._

_And he held the gun in his hand resting by his side. "Go away, Tim," he said in a hoarse whisper. _

_He shook his head and crouched beside him, "Can't do that, kid. Not with you plannin' on blow your head off in a cemetery. Come on, you're staying at my place tonight." He shook his head when he started to pull him to his feet, jerking his arm away._

_He glared up at him, "Dammit, Tim! Go home! Go home to your family while you got one. Let me join mine." He hunched his shoulders in, "I just want my Celie back!" he said in a broken voice. Tim felt his heart squeeze like it never did before. Never had he felt such emotion as he did right now for his brother. His brother had been sent to a out of state reformatory when he was sixteen, he was never the same after that. _

_When he met Celeste, some of the annoying little brother he once knew came back. He heard a sound that broke threw his thoughts, and felt his heart literally stop in his chest. Curly held the gun to his head, "I'm comin' to ya, Celie!" _

_A gunshot filled the quiet winter air_

_Tim lunged forward and jerked his arm up, the bullet going wild. _

_He wrestled with Tim fore the gun. _

_Tim wrestled with him for the gun before he could fire another shot. Finally he wrestled the gun away from him and threw it as hard as he could into the woods behind him. His harsh breathing was coming out in white puffs in the frigid night air; his angry yell broke threw the night. _

"_Dammit, you little sonofabitch!" _

"_Is killin' yourself really the answer? Is that what Celeste would really want?" _

"_Because killin' yourself ain't gonna bring her back! And it ain't gonna bring Charlie back, either!"_

_Curly shot off the ground so fast Tim didn't even see him move till he had him pinned to the snow-covered ground beneath him, his hands around his throat. His angry, tear-streaked face was all he could see. _

"_Damn you! Damn you straight to hell, Tim! You sorry prick, who are you to say what I'm goin' through? You got a beautiful wife at home waitin' on you, a son that worships you!" _

"_Hell, man you got it all. You ain't got no idea what I went through. You didn't see that sorry-ass drunk pull over into your lane till it was too late. You didn't hear Lynn screaming as he crashed into you and your car tumbling threw the air and landing like it did. Or hear her moaning in pain as you came to." _

_He squeezed his eyes shut as more tears escaped them. _

"_You didn't hold her in your arms as she took her last breath. And you could feel your kid kickin' inside her belly. And you for damn sure, didn't have some quack till you your kid was born too little to survive. I held my little boy in my arms as he took his last breath, Tim." _

"_I saw two of the most important people in my life die within a couple of days of one another. I'm tired. I don't want to wait any longer to go to them. I'm so tired..."_

_Curly let go of him and stumbled over to his wife's grave, sobbing as he touched the two graves._

_Tim laid there for the rest of the night, Curly's broken breathing finally settled into a more relaxed rhythm. Particularly stunned that his brother felt this way and how fast the kid had moved when he tackled him. _

_When the sun came up the next morning in a blaze of gold and rose, bathing the snow in a golden rose color, Tim had a realization. If this didn't stop and Curly get help, he would lose him_….

"Ain't packin', Tim. Just givin' my birthday salute to Celie." He was drawn from his distant thoughts at his brother's voice. Curly looked at him from his seated position, his eyes slightly unfocused, but still sober.

He had come along way since that night, other than Celie and Charlie's birthdays and their wedding anniversary; Curly hadn't had a drop since that time. He got his act back together, managed to convince the then owner of the Dingo to let him keep his job and moved into a cramped apartment downtown, it had been a step up from living on the streets or the local homeless shelter.

To Tim's knowledge, he hadn't seen anyone since her; despite Lynn's attempts to set him up on blind dates. But he seemed okay with that.

If Tim was the type to believe in Fate and soulmates-which he wasn't- he would think Celie was Curly's.

He hadn't even looked at another woman since her. Tim held out his hand and helped him up. He turned and gave another salute and drink before turning again. He kept his balance for the most part, but still stumbled into him a couple of times. "You know what, Tim? I was just thinking about something. Wouldn't it be funny if Ben got together with ol' Dally's little girl?" He rolled his eyes at that, "Kid, I think they kinda are already." He helped him down the hill and into his truck; he'd pick Curly's truck up in the morning.

"Ben brought a box by the house earlier, he found it in the attic and he said it was addressed to you. He's thinkin' of keeping Ma's old place and livin' there."

Curly scoffed and sneered, "Why the hell would he want anything that ol' bitch had? She was a waste of space."

Tim held his tongue as he drove to his brother's apartment; Curly had never forgiven their mom for turning to booze after their dad died. Angela figured the real reason why was because their first two stepfathers would beat the boy all the time and Ma never intervened.

Tim had tried to keep his younger siblings safe, but at eight, there wasn't much he could do against a grown man. That was when they first started running to the Curtis house some times.

Mrs. Curtis had been downright mad when they came to her house one day, covered in bruises, if not for Mr. Curtis's fast talking, she would have went down to their house that day and confronted Ma, then made a stop at the Cades.

As he dropped his brother off and he got to his door without fallin' down the steps, Tim pulled out of the parking lot and started for his own home. As he passed by a couple of the old houses he saw one that despite the chipped off paint it was still standing and undamaged, the grass was mowed the last time it was warm and the windows were still intact.

He remembered that house.

It had belonged to Gina Miller, Sam and Jane's great-grandmother. She had been the other house they would run to when they were little and Tim hadn't been big enough or strong enough to protect his siblings.

One time after his second stepfather beat him and Curly bloody for protecting Angela, they ran to her house.

The next day they went back home and their mother said he had run off in the middle of the night, terrified out of his mind about something going to kill him and take his soul. He didn't know how, but he always figured Gina had a hand in it.

The wind chimes still attached to the column, chimed in the wind, giving it an eerie feeling.

It had been empty since the day she died, mainly because no one wanted to live in the 'witch's house'. Or buy a murder house.

He would never forget the day Dal and Cade had busted into his house and told him Gina Miller had been found murdered in her home and Val and Kate were missing. When they couldn't be found, the police thought they did it and took off.

It wasn't until her autopsy showed she had been dead since that afternoon they stopped looking at the twins for her murder. Kids down at the Dingo had seen them waitin' tables that whole afternoon til late that night. No one had known if they were still alive or not til they got all got a letter from Savannah. They said they were running as far away as they could to keep from being spilt up in the foster system. They said they would come back when they turned eighteen, the law wouldn't care then. That was the last any of them heard of them til Jane and Sam showed up.

He pulled into his driveway and got out of the truck. No lights were on, not that he expected Lynn was still awake so late at night, it had to be going on one. It wasn't until he was inside he saw lights, only they were candlelight instead of electricity. He followed them to their bedroom in the back and stopped short at what he saw. The whole room was light up with candlelight. Candles of various shapes and sizes sat on every available place and Lynn stood in the center of the room, just before the bed. She wore the sheerest, sexiest nightgown he ever saw, and a seductive smile. She walked to him and lightly kissed him on the lips. "How's Curly doing tonight?" He shrugged off his jacket and set it on the door knob, "Same. Damn cold out there, talkin' about snowin' tonight." She gave him a smile and reached for his belt buckle and the button on his jeans.

"In that case, let me warm you up." And she led him to their bed and pushed him back down on it.

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and patience. I finally have my laptop up and running again! Turns out it needed a new adapter, so I'm up and going again on it._


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. Small warning- there's a sexy scene in here.

* * *

Chapter Sixteen

Jesse looked around the waiting room, nervously. For the millionth time he wondered what made him say yes to go to the doctor with Randi this afternoon. He was sitting in a OB/GYN 's office, feeling nervous around so many pregnant women. Several of them looked like they would give birth at any time. He glanced over at his current source of nervousness; Randi sat beside him looking threw a magazine, while her foot bounced nervously against the chair next to hers. He couldn't wait to get out of there.

Finally a nurse came out behind the desk, "Mrs. Coulter, the doctor will see you now."

He slummed back in his chair at the name. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a soft hand touch his forearm; he glanced over to see Randi looking at him with a mix of amusement and sympathy.

"Thanks for coming down here with me Jesse. If it wasn't hadn't been Sam was called in at the last minute and Jane had a errand she couldn't put off, one of them would have come."

He felt a bit chagrined at her grateful tone. While this was creepin' him out, this had to be freaking her out more since she was the one seeing the doctor.

"You're welcome," he said gruffly. Finally after what felt like hours the nurse called them back. She led them down a narrow hallway and stopped at a door and led them inside.

"Okay, Ms. Lewis. If you'll put this gown on the doctor will be in shortly to see you and your husband."

Jesse felt his eyes go wide and Randi blushed at the nurse's mistake.

"Uh, I'm not her husband. I'm just a friend."

The nurse lifted a blond brow at his words, then her eyes widened.

"Jesse Mathews?"

He froze and looked at her curiously, then mentally groaned; he remembered her now. She was a girl he knew in high school, they hooked up one night at a party and she went all over school the next day that they were dating, she had been a tad bit obsessive with him then.

He gave a faint grin, "Tina Reeves. How are you?"

She smiled and patted her swept-up hair, "Doing good. My boyfriend and me just moved into our first house. How about you? Have you and your girlfriend been seeing one another long?" He frowned at her til he realized she meant Randi. He frantically shook his head, "Oh no! Randi is just a friend. I volunteered to take her to the doctor so she wouldn't have to go alone."

A amused voice came back from the curtain screen, "He's also the boob that may or may not have knocked me up." She came out from behind the screen, wearing a pink hospital gown. She looked at the nurse, "We need to talk to the doctor about a paternity test, do you know how long she's going to be?" Tina stood there for a moment with her mouth open in shock.

Finally she shut it and said she should be in soon and left the room. Jesse turned and glared at her. "Was that really necessary?" She hopped on the table and nodded.

"Yes. I've been sick all morning, and having to hear what a player you are and were, isn't helping."

She ran her hands through her hair in frustration and looked up to the ceiling. "God, I wish we could take that test now and get it over with. I have a lot of things I need to do back in Savannah."

He looked at her, puzzled. "Like what?" She scowled at him, "Not that it's any of your business, but I'm opening a shop. And the building I want is a hot piece of property in downtown Savannah. I need to get back there before the owner decides to take someone else's bid."

He nodded, he could understand that; God knows his dad and him nearly bankrupted themselves buying the bar. Which was why he was currently in this situation, he thought annoyingly. He was about to say something else when the doctor came in.

She was a small, slender woman with smooth golden skin. Her dark hair was pulled back into a classy chignon at the back of her head. She looked down at her chart, and spoke to her, "Hello, I'm Dr. Haurvat. You must be Randi, how are you today?"

Her voice was soft, tinged with a lilting foreign accent she couldn't place. She shrugged, "Okay, I guess. I was alittle sick this morning, but I took some peppermint candy and I felt alittle better." She nodded and began to feel the side of her neck, "I see. If you're having it all the time, I could give you a prescription to help ease it." She shook her head, "No, I'm fine. I've had it probably twice since I found out I was pregnant. I've been told I'm lucky so far. My mother said her first three months with me all she ate was peppermint candy and saltine crackers."

She laughed, "That you are. I've had some women so sick they couldn't even keep water down." She glanced down at the chart on the bed. "I see you've recently entered your sixth week. Have you experienced anything out of the ordinary?"

She gave a nervous grin, "You mean besides being pregnant for the first time?" She shook her head. "No, not really."

She nodded and walked over to the counter and pulled out a pair of latex gloves.

"Alright, let's began the examination." She set a sheet over her lower half as she set her legs apart in the stirrups. Jesse began to get nervous when he saw her set a sheet over her legs, "I'll think I'll just stand over here. With my eyes closed." He spun around, facing the wall, wishing he was anywhere in the world but there.

Randi waved her hand at him, "Ignore him, Doctor. He's been squeamish ever since he heard the words, 'OB/GYN' and 'him go'."

She laughed and sat down at the foot of the bed and began to examine her.

"So, how long have you two been married?" Randi blushed. "We're not married. He's a friend that offered to take me to bring me here. But we do need to talk to you about a paternity test."

She looked over the sheet at her and said, "We can talk after the examination and your ultrasound."

After a more few minutes of questioning her and doing the examination she stood up and tossed her gloves in the wastebasket. "Well, if your both are ready I can do your first ultrasound. Hey, Dad. You can turn around now."

Jesse hesitantly turned around and was relived to see Randi was covered except for her stomach and the doctor pulling a machine to the side of the bed and putting a clear gel on her bare stomach.

It was still flat, but it wasn't as toned as it was the last time he saw it. He didn't see how she was housing a baby in there. He hesitantly walked to the side of the bed, as she pressed a couple of buttons and moved a probe over Randi's stomach. A black screen came on, and a fuzzy image came into view. A little dot was in the center of it and he thought he saw it move. Randi gasped and covered her mouth; her eyes gleamed in the light. She pointed to the screen with a trembling finger, "That's my baby, isn't it?"

Dr. Haurvat smiled, nodding, "Yes, there is your baby, if you look close enough you can make out the arms and legs starting to form and that," she pointed to a movement off to the side.

"That is the heartbeat. It's too early to see if it's a boy or a girl but in the next eight or nine weeks we should be able to see. What do you hope for?" She smiled up at her, "I'm hoping it's a girl; I've already picked out a name. Savannah Jane Lewis."

Jesse watched the screen, fascinated.

He looked down at her stomach and then back at the screen. Taking her hand in his, he smiled down at her before looking back at the monitor. And to his amazement, found himself wishing the tiny baby he saw on the screen, was his.

* * *

Jane got out of her car and looked around her.

She was at the Tulsa Memorial Cemetery.

She told Randi she had a errand she couldn't wait til later to do. She wasn't lying when she said that; after asking the guys for weeks to show her were her dad was, Pony called her up this morning as she was getting ready to go with Randi to the doctor and said he would show her were her dad was buried today.

She looked warily around the grounds and suppressed a shiver; she hated cemeteries.

But she owed it to her father to pay her respects. So she reached over to the passenger seat and picked up the flowers she bought today and shut the car door before she lost her nerve and got back in the car. She walked over to were Pony was waiting and they began their walk through the massive cemetery. It felt like hours before they reached a part of the cemetery that was shaded by several old trees. They stopped underneath a large weeping willow tree, were four headstones rested. Pony walked over to one and she heard him say a quiet prayer and took something out of his coat pocket and set it on the ground before the stone. He looked back at her and smiled and gestured for her to come forward. She gently set the roses on top of the stone and said a prayer then made the sign the way she was taught. He looked at her, "What was that?" She looked back at him, "It's something Mom taught me, she said it suppose to mean happy afterlife. I think it's something she picked up from her dad."

She gestured to the yellow-wrapped object he set down. "Chocolate?" He chuckled, "Yeah. It was Johnny's favorite candy bar, that boy could put away Mr. Goodbars® like there was no tomorrow." She laughed and smiled up at him, "That's my favorite too. Mom said that was about all she ate when she was pregnant with me; she said she ate them so much she was starting to wonder if she was carrying a nine pound chocolate bar instead of a baby!"

He laughed and shook his head, "You weighted nine pounds when you were born? Damn, Pete didn't even come close to that and he was two weeks overdue." She shrugged, "Beats me. According to the family bible, I was the biggest baby recorded in the family." He looked at her small frame doubtfully; but he guessed it was possible. After he turned fifteen his growth spurt kicked in and he towered over most of the guys in school, by graduation, he was two inches taller than Darry.

He was drawn from his thoughts when Jane crouched before the headstone and read the engraving out loud.

"John 'Johnny' Cade. March 1, 1965-September 28, 1981. Beloved friend and brother."

She felt a deep sadness when she read his birth and death. Her dad had been six months shy of turning seventeen when he died.

At seventeen, her mother was in New York with her aunt; waiting tables at a diner a block from their apartment and trying to keep her one year old fed.

She shook her head at the unfairness of it. She ran her fingertips lightly over the words engraved on the smooth stone. She felt tears burning behind her eyes as she touched it. She stayed crouched there for several minutes before she stood. When she spoke, her voice was thick with emotion, "You know, there's an irony to this. I've spent my whole career, promising I would keep kids like him safe. That on my watch, no Mama would have to see me on her doorstep to tell her her little boy wasn't coming home that night. And I kept my promise as best I could. But I couldn't help my dad. I couldn't help the person that needed it the most. " She looked up at him when she felt his hand rest on her shoulder, sadness darkening his green-gray eyes. That look told her he knew exactly what she meant.

"Did you know my dad was the reason I became a cop?" He shook his head; he didn't know that.

She nodded her head.

"Mom told me how he got beat or yelled at everyday of his life, and only your parents and you guys gave a damn about him. I wanted to make a difference for kids like him, so I became a cop."

She remembered looking at a few snapshots of him growing up and seeing the hurt, haunted look in his eyes that were so much like her own. Of wanting so bad to hug him and say, 'Daddy, don't be so sad.' That had been when she decided she wanted to help other kids like him.

She stepped away from him and looked at the other three head stones and saw two of them was her grandparents. She saw they died the same day about eight years ago. She looked up at Pony and said, "It says here they died the same day, did they die in a accident?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Don't know. Mrs. Cade left town a couple of months after Johnny died, his old man a few months later. I heard from around town they divorced right, that was why she left."

He bent down and brushed a dead leaf from one of the headstones.

"A few years ago, Mrs. O'Connell heard of them dying and her and her family had them brought here."

She looked up at him in surprise, "Captain O'Connell never mentioned that. Was she and Isabella friends?"

He noticed she didn't call her 'Grandmother', not that he really blamed her. "I don't know. She might have been. I don't know much about Johnny's mom. Other than the fact she was a royal bitch to him."

She grimaced, "Yeah, from what I heard about her that sounds about right."

She looked at the third headstone, only this one was smaller than the others and it had a small angel engraved on it.

She read the stone out loud, "Amy Marie Cade August 2, 1961 -June 1, 1971. A sweet angel taken too early."

She looked up at Pony to see a deep sadness in his eyes. "Who's Amy? Was she a cousin or something?" From the way her mom talked, her dad was the last one on both sides of his family.

He gently brushed a leaf off the top of the headstone before speaking, "She was Johnny's big sister."

Her jaw dropped at his words. She looked back at the stone and then back at him. She shook her head, "I thought dad was an only child. Mom said they talked about everything, she never mentioned he had a sister."

Both were silent for a moment.

"What happened, did she get sick?" She looked back at the pink granite headstone and felt sick at heart to see her aunt was only ten when she died. She saw he was silent for a long moment before he spoke, but when he did; his voice was quiet and strained with emotion.

"No, she wasn't sick; she was actually healthy as a horse. She was riding her bike home one night from a friend's house when a guy in a truck ran into her. Bastard was so hopped up on cocaine he didn't even see her til he hit her. She went flying and landed in a ditch."

He swallowed thickly before continuing, "She broke her neck on impact." He heaved a heavy sigh; the details of her death still fresh in his mind after all these years. "They didn't find her til the next morning. Doc said she was unconscious before she ever hit the ground, so she didn't feel anything."

She felt tears run down her face at those words; she could only imagine how everyone took it when they heard the news.

"Were they close?" He nodded. "Yeah, Johnny worshiped the ground Amy walked on. She had been four years older than him and used to get the biggest kick out of it when him and me would follow her around." She did a mental calculation and realized she would have been the same age as Darry. "Did she go to school with Darry? They would have been close to the same age."

He nodded. "Yeah, they used to get paired together all the time for school assignments. Her and Johnny were around our house as much as we were."

He walked over to a stone bench shaded by another tree and gestured for her to set next to him and let out a heavy breath. He looked at Johnny's headstone for a long moment before he spoke, "I doubt Johnny told Val about her, Johnny never talked about her."

He snorted, "Hell, I don't think I even heard him say her name after she died. I doubt he even told Dal about her, none of us would mention her when Johnny was around. I think it was because it would have been too hard for him to remember, whatalone talk about it." She frowned at him, puzzled at his words.

"What do you mean, 'too hard for him to remember'?" He looked over at her, "His parents; they changed after she died. For the worse."

"Before Amy died, his folks were good people. Sure, his dad could be a hard ass, but he didn't drink and beat him every time he turned around."

He shook his head; "My mom and her were actually good friends before everything went to hell. She had been a sweet, caring woman and adored them. Never even raised her voice at them."

"His old man thought Amy hung the moon. They went from Jekyll to Hyde after she died. A couple of weeks after she died they started drinkin' and beatin' on Johnny. I heard his mom scream at him one night it should have been him that died instead of Amy."

Despite herself, Jane felt more tears seep from her closed eyes at that. She couldn't imagine the hurt he went through, not just losing his big sister that he adored, but to be blamed for her dying and being punished for being the one that survived. She mentally shook her head; it just didn't make sense to her.

"I remember sittin' in my room one night and heard Mom crying to Dad; it was the first time Johnny came over with a black eye and a busted lip. She was shocked that his old man had done that, and I think she was heart-broken that his mom started hollerin' at him and said that to him."

She shivered at the story he was telling her, she didn't know what was worse; having loving parents suddenly turn into monsters, or that they always had been that way?

* * *

Sam unzipped her jacket as she looked around the room of Ben's house, she could hear him in the kitchen going through the bags of supplies he bought this morning. Yesterday, Darry had come by and inspected Ben's new house.

Surprisingly, he told him that it was still sound and despite the inside appearance-it wasn't falling apart; it just needed some 'cosmetic repairs' as Darry called it. He told Ben if he was up to the task, he could do most of the projects on his own. She came by earlier on her lunch break and brought them both lunch. He asked her to come over after she left work for the day, to get her opinion on a few things.

She was able to leave early, and after checking to see how Randi's appointment went, she drove over to Ben's place. She looked outside a front window and saw her new truck out in the driveway; after some debating, her and Jane agreed another car would be practical since their new cases didn't always allow them to work the same hours.

So here she stood, in his new, empty house. With just her and Ben in here. She forced herself not to think too much about that and the potential possibilities it had.

She saw the old run down couch and chair in the living room was gone and a quick glance in the room down the hall showed the same. She remembered him saying the stuff was too old to keep and too run-down to be re-used, so he junked at the local dump.

He said he was bringing his stuff from his apartment down next week, she wondered if it was in better shape than the junk that was in here before. She looked down at the bare floor and realized the old smelly, carpet was gone. A glance in the kitchen said it was sitting in the two big, black garbage bags against the back door in the kitchen.

The floor underneath was a surprise; a dark brown hardwood floor ran threw the living room and she saw down the hall and up the stairs.

She noticed the mildew smell was gone and the air smelt strongly of disinfectant and some other kind of cleaner she couldn't identify. It smelt like a hospital in here now. _"But it beats smelling like a foot in here,"_ she thought.

She peeked into the kitchen to see what was taking him so long; he was going to start on patching up the walls, there was no ceiling light in the living room and it was going to be dusk soon.

She saw him with his back to the laundry room she could see through the kitchen doorway. He was standing in front of the window, pulling on a old flannel shirt. And she fought the urge to drool, she had seen him half-dressed before, but she forget what a sight he was. Strong, broad shoulders, trim waist, and a taut muscled back bore a tattoo over his left shoulder blade. She could see from where she was standing it was words; it was information that would be on his dog tags. She vaguely remembered hearing about some branches of the military tattooing the soldier's dog tags on the soldiers themselves, rather than on the traditional dog tags.

But right now she didn't care if they started dressing in polka-dotted fatigues and doing the mamba. All she could think about was running her hands over all that hot skin and delicious-looking muscles. She could only imagine what it would be like to have all of that pressed against her. Or wrapping her legs around that muscled back and riding him till he begged for mercy. She shook herself of those thoughts and quietly backed away from the door and walked back over to the window and let the cool air coming from a cracked window pane cool her burning face.

"_Bad Sam."_

"_Don't go thinking about how hot he looks or how incredible it would be to get in his fatigues. Remember, you swore off guys after that loser, Evan. No more hot guys. You're on a strict no-guys diet. Your on a permanent no-hot-guys diet."_

She cast a wistful look back at the kitchen as she reminded herself why she couldn't be nothing more than a friend to him. But she found herself wishing she was off her 'diet'. She had been burned before, and barely escaped with her skin. With Ben, this time around she wouldn't get off so easy. She'd burn to ash if she let herself get involved with him. But in the back of her mind, something said she would have a helluva good time burning!

Ben hid the smile trying to form on his mouth when he walked into the living room. He knew Sam was looking at him when he was putting his shirt on. He felt strangely flattered that she couldn't resist checking him out, maybe 'cause he was doing the same when she wasn't looking. There was no doubt she was a beautiful woman, but it wasn't just her face or her body that drew his attention. It was something deeper than that. A couple of times when she didn't realize he was watching her, she seemed to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders.

And maybe she did in some ways; she was a cop trying to make it in a town where her old man had more arrest warrants than most people had socks. That wasn't easy, and he should know. He had to live down his pop's reputation since he was old enough to tie his shoes. "Are you going to just stand there or are we going to get this room done before we lose the light?" He grinned and chuckled, she was good. He didn't make a sound and she still knew he was there. So much for all that training he went through, he mused. He held up the roll of plastic sheet and tub of spackle and grinned at her, "Ready to get to work?" and tossed her a set of work gloves he picked up. She grinned back at him and put them on, "Let's get crackin', Shepard. We're losin' light since you're too cheap to pick up a little ol' five dollar lamp to keep in here." He laughed and began to roll the plastic sheeting over the floor.

The sun had set when Sam and Ben finished in the living room and hallway. Sam pulled her gloves off and tossed them on the plastic-covered counter next to Ben's. She rolled her neck and rubbed the stiff muscles there, they had spent the last three hours spackling and patching up the walls in just those two rooms. It wouldn't have been so bad except some of the places that need patching were big enough to hold a fist or something just as big and were just in need of repairing from years of things being thrown against it.

She had a pretty good idea what caused those holes, but she didn't say anything. She imagined that had been how her dad and Uncle Johnny's houses looked as teenagers. Sam had stopped being naïve years ago, but after being raised by a loving mother and overprotective aunts, the reason parents abused their kids, still eluded her. She broke from her thoughts by a throat being cleared. Ben handed her a Dixie cup with water in it and gave her a odd look. "Where'd you dream-off to? I was talking to you for three minutes before you heard me." She shook her head and took a drink of the cold water. "It's nothing. I was just thinking." He smirked and said, "I didn't think blondes thought much. I heard it was fatal."

She choked on her water and glared at him. She kicked out at him; he barely caught her leg before it made contact with his groin. "For your information, Shepard. We blondes are quite capable of thinking as much as the next person." She shook her head in disgust, "Man, I hate those damn stereotypes as much as Jane does." He gave her a look. "What are you talking about?"

"She used to get picked because everyone that she was a easy target because she was small. Something about the stereotype about short people or something." She chuckled, remembering the first time she showed she wasn't someone to take anything lying down. "What's so funny?" She shook her head, "Nothin'. I was just remembering the last time some kid picked on her because he thought she was an easy target. She turned around and kicked his legs out from under him and pinned his arms down as she sat on him. He was so stunned all he could do was lay there." Sam smiled at the memory and took a drink of her water. He laughed at that, he could just imagine it. Jane was all of five foot and probably weighted a hundred pounds on a good day, but he'd seen her fight and she was damn good.

He looked over at Sam and saw her take a look swallow of her drink, and he felt an instant reaction to seeing her long neck tilted back and her throat work as she swallowed. He also realized he was still holding her leg from where she tried to kick him. A small smile formed on his lips as he considered the position he was in.

Sam paused in mid-act of lifting the cup to her mouth when she saw a little devilish smile grace Ben's mouth. And he had such a smile, wither it was a full-blown one or a little devious one like he was sporting now.

He turned to her and took the cup out of her hand and set it on the counter beside her. She could tell by the look in his eyes and his face he wanted to kiss her, she told herself she should stop it before it began. But as his lips touched hers, she knew she couldn't and wouldn't stop him. The touch of his lips to hers was incredible. She thought the first time was amazing, this time; it was earth-shattering. He pulled her closer to her as he reached around and held her head still, she gasped at the first touch of his tongue to hers, but what happened next had her aching for more.

His hands traveled the length of her back; stopping to rub circles at the base of her spine, making her shiver, then his hands cupped her backside and pulled her up to him. Like someone else was in her body, she wrapped her legs around his waist and ran her hands over his broad shoulders and back as he set her on the edge of the counter. She couldn't stop herself, her hands caressed through his shirt, feeling the steel beneath the worn flannel. She knew she was in deep water, but at that moment she didn't care. For the first time in a long time, she felt wanted, and she wanted all of him she could take. With nimble fingers she unbuttoned his shirt as his mouth left a trail of heat over skin not covered by clothes. In no time, Ben's shirt laid in a heap behind him on the floor, and she moaned at the feel of his bare skin under her questing hands. She led a trail of kisses down his face and down his neck. Where his neck met his collarbone, she bit down, then licked away the small sting she made. He groaned deep in his chest and he lifted her face from his chest, taking her mouth hungrily with his. Becoming addicted to the taste of her. He pulled back slightly and pulled her shirt over her head, leaving it in a heap on the floor. She leaned back against the cabinet behind her and moaned at the feel of his lips trailing down her chest where he was stopped by the lace of her bra. He pulled one lacy cup away and groaned at the sight of her bare breast. He leaned down and blew his hot breath against her, watching the pink flesh bead under his hot gaze.

She gasped, arching closer to him, he gave a lick and grinned when he heard her cry out and fisted her hands in his hair, pulling him closer. He took her into his mouth and suckled her.

Sam leaned back, panting at the sensations his mouth was creating. She ached at the feelings he created in her. And she wanted more. As if he read her mind, he pulled his mouth away, bringing a sigh of disappointment from her. But it didn't last long; he pulled her hips to the very edge, rubbing his arousal against her jean-clad mound. She leaned her head back, panting from her arousal, "Ben, please."

She didn't have to elaborate what she wanted. He grinned at her and said, "I've waited to hear you say that since I saw you standing on my porch that day." Then with expert ease, he flicked the front clasp of her bra, it came open and fell down her arms and bared her to his hungry gaze. He froze. Sam opened her eyes when she felt his gaze on her bare skin, she opened them in time to see his widened in shock, he brought his hand to her shoulder, lightly touching her scar. She tensed when he touched the bullet scar and traced down her arm where the surgical scar that ran down the inside of her arm and the curve of her breast where they repaired the nerves. "What happened?"

She froze and in her mind she saw another man looking at her in horror and disgust. _"God, Samantha. You look horrible. I can't even stand to look at you."_

All the old feelings came rushing back, and worse of all; she remembered the humiliation of seeing Evan turn away from her in disgust at the scars left on her body from the bullet and then, the surgery that saved her life.

Her eyes burning from the humiliating memory, she pushed Ben away, fastening her bra back and scooping up her shirt and coat. She pulled them on as she ran out the door and to her truck. She didn't look back to see a bare-chested Ben follow her out, looking puzzled and worried as she squealed out of the driveway and down the road.

She sped all the way back to her apartment; stopping when she reached the parking lot. She sat in her truck for a long while. She just sat there, pressing her hand to her shoulder; she could almost feel it burning a hole through her clothes and searing her hand.

She sat in the truck, shaking from the memories and old feelings brought back, and leaned her head down on the steering wheel and began to cry. She cried even harder with the realization she would have to break off all contact with Ben, she couldn't take seeing the same look on his face as it had been on Evan's. Because as far as she had come; she couldn't bear to have another man she cared about reject her because of what had been done to save her life.

* * *

Randi walked up to the door and turned the key in the lock, opening it. She turned to Jesse, "Want to come inside for a few minutes?" He nodded. After spending nearly the whole day together, some of the awkwardness eased between them. But Randi was still nervous as a cat around him, and it wasn't just the idea that she may or may not be sharing a child with this man. It was because she was starting to become attracted to him. And that was bad.

After seeing how her parents's marriage ended in divorce she promised herself she would never put herself threw that. It was probably why her love life was non-existent. She blocked that particular thought out of her mind as she tossed her purse in a nearby chair and walked to the kitchen and put her prescription on the counter.

She held open the fridge and then looked back at Jesse sitting on the couch, "You want anything to drink?" He looked up from the book he was thumbing through, "You got any Mountain Dew?" She brought a can out and tossed it to him; he caught it with ease and tapped it once then opened it. She cut herself a slice of cake and came back into the living room. She sat down next to Jesse on the couch and smiled when she caught sight of what he had been reading. It was her pregnancy book Meg had given her; so far she had read it twice and had it nearly memorized.

She looked over at him, "So, find anything interesting in there," she gestured to the book lying on the table. To her surprise she saw him start to flush; he shrugged and took a drink.

"All I got to say is, thank god I was born a man. I don't know if I'd get all the stuff straight in my head!"

She laughed and continued to eat, while they watched tv in silence. When Jesse spoke this time, he was serious. "So, according to the doc, we still have another eight weeks before we can do the test. What do you want to do if the test comes back positive?" She paused in mid-fork to her mouth at his words; she hadn't given it much thought really. She took a bite before she answered, letting out a heavy sigh, "I don't know. Divorced couples with kids usually have joint custody and spilt their time with them. Maybe we could do something like that. I don't know really, to be honest I haven't really given much thought about it beyond the test results." She turned on the couch so she could look him fully in the eye. "I guess we'll just have to figure it out when the time comes." He seemed to accept that went back to watching the show.

An hour later Jesse was leaving. Randi walked him to the door, "Thanks for everything today, Jesse. I appreciate it." He grinned at her, "Pleasure was all mine. It was no hard ship carryin' around a pretty woman."

She shook her head and smiled, there was the bull she was expecting from him. He started out the door when he stopped and turned back around.

"Randi?" She looked up at her name and he took a step closer to her. To her surprise, he cupped her face in both hands, and brought her face up to his. At the first touch of his lips against hers, she felt a jolt go through her. She brought her hand up to his chest; to push him away. But instead, her hand traveled up to cup his strong jaw and returned it. Just as she started to deepen it, he pulled away.

He was breathing hard and she saw something flash in his gray eyes, they didn't laugh like they normally did; instead they were hot and gave her a shiver seeing such a look directed at her. "I've wanted to do that since I first met you outside the bar." He gently caressed the smooth skin of her cheek and smiled.

"Nite, Randi."

Then he turned around and walked down the hall and down the stairs that led outside. All she could do was stand there in the doorway, pressing her fingertips against her mouth. Only one word could enter her mind and she said it out loud in the empty hallway. "Wow."

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and the dog-tag tattoo is real, my brother had his done on his chest when he joined up._


	19. Chapter 19

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or characters that belong to FF authors. They belong to S.E. Hinton and their owners respectively. Also, a warning: there is a love scene in this chapter. Not a 'sexy', but a for real love scene._

* * *

Chapter Seventeen

Jesse sat in the office of Mathews's Bar and Club, oblivious to the loud music and drunken hollers happening barely muffled by the office walls. He held a glossy picture in his hand, studying it. It was grainy and black and white, but he could make out what it was.

A picture of a baby that may or may not be his.

When they left the doctor today, she had given them both a picture of the sonogram. Randi had held hers like it was a gold-encrusted bible.

He sighed and set it down on the desk, leaning back in his chair; out of all the situations he had been in and imagined himself in, this one took the prize.

Having some chick that he had never met say she was having his kid was a new one on him.

He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't hear the door open til he felt someone shoved his feet off the desk. He jerked and looked up to see his dad grinning down at him. He sat on the edge of the desk and shook his head, "Boy, I swear you get more and more like me everyday. Zoning out and not payin' attention."

He shook his head at his dad, "I think you got us confused with Pete and Uncle Pone." He shook his head, "Naw, I'm as bad as Pone about that. I just hide it better than him."

He chuckled and shook his head at his dad; the man was bullin' him, behind that laughter and joker was a sharp mind and keen eye. For years his dad bartended at upscale and seedy, dirty bars, seeing ways to make more money from them. And was sneered at when he brought money-making ideas to the bosses. He knew several of them laughed when the bar went up for sale and they bought it; saying they would never last past the first six months. But they stopped laughin' when two years in a row they were voted downtown Tulsa's most popular hangout.

Two-Bit picked up the picture and held it up to him. "What's this?" Jesse ducked his head, rubbing his neck. "I-uh I got volunteered to take Randi to the doctor today and she did a ultrasound thing on her and gave us both a picture. Of the baby."

Despite himself he leaned forward eagerly, pointing at the center of the picture, "Right there is the baby's heart and right there is one of her legs." Two-Bit looked up at him surprised, "They can already tell it's a girl?"

He shook his head, feeling slightly embarrassed, "No, she said it'll be several weeks before they can tell if it's a he or a she. Randi was pretty positive she's having a girl."

Two-Bit held the picture in his hands carefully, knowing there was a possibility he was holding a picture of his son's kid. He looked back up at his son and saw lines around his eyes and mouth that weren't there earlier today. He set the picture down and patted him on the shoulder, "It'll be okay, kid."

He shook his head, "I don't know, Pop. Doc said it'll be over a month before it's safe to do the test. I don't know what to do in the mean time."

He released a heavy sigh and looked up at his dad. "I asked Randi what she wants to do if the tests come back positive. She said she didn't really know, hadn't really thought about it past the test results." He ran a hand threw his hair and put his head in his hands. "Truth is, Pop; I'm almost hopin' the kid is mine. How freakin' weird is that?"

Two-Bit was silent for a long moment before he spoke, choosing his words carefully. "That ain't so weird, son. When your Ma told me she was gonna have ya, I'll admit I was thrilled."

Jessed arched a brow at his dad; before his parents married his dad was a flirt and a well-known bachelor.

He shook his head, "Yeah, I know. But when she told me she was pregnant and was keeping it; I was thrilled. Hell, that night I went out and bought her one of those shirts that say it's a boy or something like that for ya."

He looked up at his dad, "Did you really? You were thrilled for the early morning feeding and dirty diapers?"

He threw his head back and laughed, "Lord no! I don't know of many who are. But I was glad to have known ya and called you my son all the same."

Jesse choked back the sudden emotion in his throat and got up from the desk and patted his dad on the shoulder.

"Thanks, Pop. I'm gonna go give Tee a break at the bar."

He left the room and walked down the hall that led to the door leading out to the bar, a bad rendition of '_My Girl'_ came over the loud speakers. He shook his head; karaoke night how he loved it. But after talking to his dad, the weight on his shoulders seemed lighter than before. He ducked behind the bar and took the drink order from a blond waitress.

As the night went on he kept going back to the night before and the conversation he and Randi had. A month couldn't go by fast enough for his state of mind; waiting for them to take that test. And then there was the attraction he was feeling for her. It had been there when he first met her, but now it was getting stronger the more he was around her. It didn't help he kissed her last night, he thought it would be the end of the attraction, but it wasn't. It only made him want more.

* * *

Pete knocked on the door, when no one came he tried again. He had his key out when the door opened and a rumpled-looking Jane answered the door. She looked up at him tiredly, and gestured for him to come in. She walked into the kitchen and to the coffeepot, looking at the paper-buried kitchen table then at him.

"I'm sorry about the movie tonight, Peter. I got wrapped up in this and forgot all about the time." He nodded his understanding and looked at the cardboard box sitting in the floor, "New case?" She shook her head, "No, actually compared to Savannah, Tulsa is pretty quiet in missing persons. I guess Tulsa is still a small town either way you dice it."

She turned back to him, "I'm glad you're here though. I've been meaning to ask you something, preferably when we were alone."

He gave her a wicked grin, "I thought you'd never ask." He pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly on the lips. She pulled back, laughing and shook her head. "Not that you nymphomaniac! I'm talking about this report. It's dad's medical report." He sobered and took the file from her hand and sat in a chair at the table, skimming over the report. He frowned as he read the medication and the dosage, the dosage shouldn't have killed him, but apparently he had been allergic to the medication they had him on. He looked up at Jane; she looked at him over the rim of her coffee cup.

"It says here Johnny died from cardiac arrest and bradypnea." She quirked a eyebrow at him, "I know. I need English if you don't mind, please."

He cleared his throat, "It means he had a allergic reaction to the pain medication mixed with the antibiotic they had on him and it caused his heart and lungs to seize and close up so he couldn't get air or blood pumping through the heart and lungs. They couldn't get a antidote to him in time and he coded."

She looked down at her coffee cup, "So basically his lungs and heart shut down and they couldn't get to him in time to restart them."

He nodded.

"That's what it says here basically. I doubt it showed up in his medical history since he probably was never tested for allergies."

He closed the folder and set it back on the pile across from him.

"If they had gotten to him in time, he probably wouldn't have died. But combined with the burns and spinal injury it took his ability to fight it, it made it worse for his already weak lungs."

She set the cup down and picked up the folder and re-read it. Her expression turned thoughtful, "I've heard some allergies are genetic, I wonder if some allergies that are genetic is medication."

"Why?" She looked up at him gestured to the file he set on the pile, "Because I'm allergic to this antibiotic and pain medication combo too. I did the exact same thing he did."

He went pale at her words. "When did that happen? When you were a kid?"

She shook her head and sat down in the chair next to him. She hesitated telling him this much about her. In the six years since her and Bruce spilt she had never volunteered any unnecessary information about herself to other men like she was going to now. Finally, she nodded and set her coffee cup down and faced him. "Last year. I had the reaction last year; I was never tested for allergies as a kid so my medical history had no report of medicine allergies when it was given to me."

She gave a small sigh and took sip of coffee before she spoke again.

"I was on a case that I can't give specifics, only that I was shot and I was put on the same pain and antibiotic combination dad was on. I crashed hard just like he did."

She looked at him with haunted eyes. "And I died just like he did. But I was brought back in time."

Pete sat there for a long moment, silently processing all she told him. She half expected him to get up and walk out, not wanting to be around her after hearing she had been brought back; some people were skittish of those that had been brought back. What he did next surprised her, he grasped the wooden legs of her chair, pulling her close and yanked her into his lap. Pulling her close he stared in her eyes as he cupped her face in his hand.

"I'm glad they did," he whispered as his lips descended down to hers.

* * *

Sam slammed her truck door shut and looked around her. It was a surprisingly warm day for February, and the sun was shining brightly through bare tree limbs. But despite the sunny day she pulled her jacket around her tighter.

Ben left last week to pack his apartment up; she purposely avoided his calls and e-mails. After what happened she couldn't keep seeing him, she was starting to have feelings for him and she couldn't stand the thought of seeing that shocked look on his face every time he saw her half-naked. Or worse, that disgusted, horrified look like Evan gave her.

She was drawn from her thoughts when she heard a car pull up behind her. She looked around; her gun within easy reach should she need it. Ben was getting out of a black Jeep and held a cardboard box in front of him. He regarded her coolly, "Hello, Sam. How are you?" She inwardly winced at the formal tone in his voice, but told herself it was for the best. She was so screwed up she didn't know which way was up, he didn't need that, she figured that much. "Hi, Ben. How'd moving go? Your stuff at your new place now?"

"Yeah. Matter fact, I came here to give something to Two-Bit." Then without another word he walked up the steps and into the house.

Sam held out til he was in the house before she let the tears she had been holding back, run down her cheeks. She kept telling herself it was for the best their friendship and attraction end there; but if it was for the best why did it feel so wrong?

Ben kept telling himself that it probably was for the best they didn't act on their attraction to one another. At least that was the line he was feeding himself. He gave a forced smile as he greeted the guys in the living room and joint dining room. Everyone was there watching a movie on Two-Bit's new big-screen plasma tv.

When he spotted Two-Bit sitting at the kitchen table, figuring the books for the month, his forced smile became genuine. He had always liked Two-Bit, he was just one of those guys that could make you laugh even when you felt like crap.

He hadn't been real close to Ben's dad and uncle growin up, but as they got older him and a bunch of the other guys that became extended family, got to be tight. He set the box down in a empty chair and snickered at the numbers he was poorly adding up.

"Damn, Two-Bit. I thought after last time you overdrew the bar account you'd let Jesse do the bookkeeping. Itn't that why you send him to school for?"

He chuckled and looked up at him. "Yeah. And right now I'm realizing why I finally dropped out of school. Couldn't past the damn math!"

He threw the pen down in disgust and stood up, giving him a hearty slap on the back.

"How you been kid? You haven't been around us much since you came back. Heard you got your Granny's house and gonna live there."

He nodded, "Yep. Spent this whole week packing my place up to come back down here." He lifted the box lid and withdrew the newspaper wrapped object from the top. "Here, found it at my place. Meant to give it to you last time I was here, but I got sent out before I could get it to ya." He took it with a cocked eyebrow. "A newspaper? You trying to say I need to read the paper more."

He laughed at his own joke and unwrapped it to reveal a shot glass. It was red etched glass with black writing in a language he couldn't read. He smiled at him, "Thanks, kid. Wanna come and see the old collection?" he asked, referring to his collection of shot glasses.

He had one from every bar in Tulsa and over the years friends and family had sent him some from other parts of Oklahoma and states. The first time Ben was shipped out he brought back with him a shot glass from a Irish bar, even a couple of bottles of real Irish whiskey for him and Jesse.

Even since then, whenever he was shipped out to a foreign country he brought him back a shot glass from a bar there. So far, Two-Bit had close to twenty in his foreign collection. He walked down the hall and opened the door and set the glass on the shelf that ran the length of the room that served as Lan's home office.

He looked around the room and saw a black grainy picture on the desk. He walked over to it and saw it was a ultrasound.

He gestured to it, "I take this it from Jesse. I talked to him earlier, said he went with Randi for a doctor's appointment last week. He heard anything different about the test?" Two-Bit shook his head, "Naw, still gonna be a month or longer before they can take it. I don't know who's more worried about that test; them or Lan and me."

They walked back to the living room and saw Jane and Randi were sitting with Pete and Jesse on the floor.

He sat down on the floor, watching a action movie with the rest of them. It was just getting to a good fight scene when he heard the back door slam and heard Lan and Two-Bit greet somebody. He looked up to see Sol standing in the doorway. She was a younger version of Lan and the baby of the Mathews family. She grinned at him when she saw him in the floor, "Well, well. If it isn't Navy man. How are you? I haven't seen you in forever and a day."

She gestured to the full couch and made shooing gestures. "Schooh, Curtises. I had to teach a bunch of loud, obnoxious teenagers today, my feet are killing me. I gotta sit down." She made her way through the crowded room and flopped down on the couch between Wendy and Pony. She sighed as she kicked her heels off and curled her legs up in the cushion. She took a handful of buttered popcorn from the large bowl that was being passed around.

She munched on it for a few minutes before she spoke again, "By the way, anybody know who drives a Porsche? I saw one drive down the street when I was pulling in." They all shook their heads, murmuring no's and who drove it. But Jane and Randi discreetly looked at one another out of the corner of their eyes. They knew someone who drove a Porsche, but he wouldn't come down here. They were still thinking of that when they heard Naomi whistle, "Wow, nice car. Hey, Sol I think I see that Porsche you were talking about pulling up on the street. He must be lost cause he's getting out of the car. Whoa, hot guy at ten o'clock!"

Jane and Randi looked at one another and seemed to be thinking the same thing, "What's he look like," they said in union.

She looked back at them and grinned, "Hot. Pretty-boy hot, he's wearing an expensive-looking black shirt and pants and boy does he look good in them! I'm going for a closer look."

Bri shook her head at her younger sister. "One day her being boy-crazy is going to get her in trouble." Patti nudged her leg playfully, "Kinda like you, big sis?" she said teasingly, knowing Mike had been the only guy that ever really caught her eye.

A moment later the door slammed shut and a pale Naomi came in. Patti looked at her twin in alarm, "Naomi, what wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

She gestured back to the door, "Who is that guy? He just said something about being Sam's husband. I didn't know she was married."

Jane and Randi instantly jumped to their feet and looked at one another. Ben looked stunned from his position in the floor. "That bastard!" Naomi looked confused, "Wait, who is he?"

Jane marched across the room with Randi behind her. Randi looked over at her as she passed her, "He's Sam's sorry ex-husband. I don't know how the bastard found her here. Our family and her captain are the only ones that know she moved here."

And they took off out the door at a run with Pete and Jesse not far behind them while everyone else crowded around the screen door and windows to see what was the commotion about.

Sam angrily wiped the last of the tears away, and took a deep breath. She was trying to give herself some time to collect herself before she walked in there and have to been around Ben.

If it wasn't she said she would come to Two-Bit's house to watch a new movie someone rented, she would turn around and just go home. Taking a calming breath she straightened her shoulders and checked to make sure it wasn't obvious she had been crying before she started to walk up the porch. She had barely taken a step when she heard a loud engine rip through the quiet evening air. She turned in time to see a silver Porsche pull up beside her truck. The engine idled for a few minutes before it turned off and the driver stepped out.

She went pale when she saw who got out of the car. Lean and around her height he had a

face that would be considered handsome by anyone's standards.

He was almost pretty with the way his face was put together. If she didn't know for a fact he was born that way, she would wonder if a gifted plastic surgeon had made him that way. He was also the last person she expected to see.

He smiled at her as he caught sight of her, but she saw the cruel lift of his lips as he caught sight of her worn jeans and the old gray jacket over her old Savannah PD t-shirt.

She lifted her chin and looked him in the eye, "Why are you here, Evan? Or better yet, how did you know I was here? The only people that know, other than my captain is my family and we both know they would sooner shoot you on sight than talk to you."

He circled her, bringing her long braid to his face, he sniffed it and chuckled, "Why, Samantha, a husband has a right to know where his wife is."

She heard a sharp intake behind her and knew someone from inside the house had come out and heard him. She whirled around breaking his hold on her hair, effective knocking his hand away, "Last time I checked, Evan, we're divorced. I think it had to do with the fact you couldn't keep it zipped through the majority of our marriage. Especially the last time."

He smiled at her, "Why, Sam I asked if you wanted to join us. Normally, I'm very stingy with my lovers."

Her hand itched to slap that smug look off his face. She forced herself to give a carefree smile, "Thanks Evan, but unlike you I'm not into threesomes. Especially when two of them are men. Now, leave. My lawyer and yours came to a agreement on your alimony payments, the check's mailed to you every month and that's all the contact we have with one another; that was the agreement."

She pointed to his car, "Now go home. Get on with your life. I am. I've left our marriage in the past, you should too. Good bye, Evan."

Inwardly, Sam was proud of how calm and cool she sounded when she told him to leave. She had been afraid she would lose her cool and attack him when she met him again. She turned away and had barely taken two steps back to the house when the door slammed open and out spilled her sisters, both looking furious when they saw Evan standing on the front lawn.

She mentally groaned to herself when they came running down the steps only to have Jesse and Peter come running after them to stop them. After she filed for divorce, she had been numb and withdrawn from everything that had happened.

Were she didn't feel anything for the betrayal Evan did to her; Randi and Jane seemed to have felt it for her. It had taken Al's strong arm to keep Randi from doing something stupid-like going and kill him.

Jane had been a different story, she had been extremely dangerous at that time. Very volatile, easy to anger and hard to control during that time and neither had been themselves. Sam had been so out of it and withdrawn, she hadn't been able to talk Jane down from those episodes. Randi had been the only one able to keep her from going over the edge during that time. Sam knew the only thing that had kept Evan safe from her sister's volatile wrath had been the fact she would have lost custody of Mikey.

Jane kicked and squirmed in Pete's strong embrace, and to her surprise he held her strong despite her squirming and kicking to be released.

"Dammit, Curtis letmme go! I'm gonna give that sorry bastard the ass kickin he deserves!" Randi glowered at the smirking man on the lawn, "I'll help ya, once Jess let's me go!"

"The hell I am, that's my kid you're carrying," he snapped back. His bit-out words snapped the fight out of her and made her think, which had been his point. But it didn't stop her from looking at Evan like she'd like nothing more than to mount his head on a pike.

Sam glanced back at Evan and saw the mean sneer twisting his handsome face and look back at her, "Really, Samantha. I thought I told you to stop hanging out with your half-breed cousin and that backwoods cracker friend of yours. I thought I introduced you to the right kind of people-" a loud slap interrupted him, her open palm slapping him so hard his head snapped to the side.

Her palm print was bright against his cheek. She glared at him; shaking with the effort not to jump on him and beat him bloody, "I don't want to ever hear you call my sisters that again! Now get the hell out of here before I really lose my temper. If you think you've seen my temper before, you're clueless. Cause your about to see the famous Winston temper firsthand!"

She turned and walked away, before she really lost her temper and do something she might not regret. But before she could take more than two steps, he grabbed her arm and spun her around. Before she could block him, he backhanded her.

He hit her so hard she fell to the ground; her lip and cheek began to bleed from where his signet ring cut her.

She heard someone cry out, "You bastard! So help me God, I'll kill you!"

He glared down at her, "I'll say anything I want to, you white-trash whore! I only married you because no-good, bastard whores like you make my family sick, and it especially pisses them off when they marry into their family. No man in his right mind would want you and your white-trash family in his family!" She glared up at him, but deep inside where she wouldn't admit it, a part of her wanted to cry and scream at the hateful words he hurled at her.

Finally, her anger won out and her foot shot up between his legs and he dropped like a stone, howling on the ground. She jumped to her feet as he fell to his knees and jerked her knee up, hitting him hard under the chin, he fell back on the ground, alternating between holding his injured privates and bruised chin.

She looked down at him in disgust, "Leave. Leave, before I forget I'm sworn to protect sorry bastards like you and really hurt you."

She started to turn away when he yanked on her legs out from under her; she got a foot loose and kicked out as she went down. He loomed over her prone figure, blood oozing from his nose where she kicked and hit his nose.

She hoped she broke it.

He slammed his fist into her face, the blow jerked her head back and she felt her eye instantly swell shut. She pulled her legs up and kicked him off her. Before she could land another blow, a blur speed past her and Evan was slammed against the fence. Evan threw a punch and the man caught his fist in his and bent his arm back til she heard something pop and he screamed out in pain.

The man on top of him swung his big fist at him and clipped him hard on the jaw. Evan's head snapped back at the hard blow, but he kept hitting him til Evan stopped struggling.

Sam stumbled over to him and grabbed the man's raised fist, "Ben, stop! Ben, stop it before you kill him! Ben, he ain't worth it!"

"He ain't worth it," she added softly.

He was breathing heavy as the glaze cleared from his eyes and he was aware again. He looked up at her and cupped her face in one hand. She held back her wince when he touched her swelling eye and cut lip, but his face darkened still as he took in her bruised and bleeding face.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. But when she saw the rage darken his eye again she whispered in a hoarse voice, "Don't hurt him, Ben. He ain't worth you going to jail for killing him or beating him into a coma."

He inhaled sharply at her words, but after several tense minutes he nodded his head jerkily.

"I won't, Sam."

She breathed a small sight of relief.

But it didn't last long. He stood and bodily pulled the smaller man to his feet and slammed him against the fence, holding him there by his throat. He leaned in close to his face and spoke in a deadly calm voice that sent a chill threw her.

"Listen here you little piece of shit, she's mine now. You had your chance and you blew it, now get the hell out of here. I don't want to hear you've asked about her. Look at her. I don't want you to even think about her. If you do, I won't stop next time. And I'll take pleasure in seeing the life drain out of you."

He let him go and the man slumped against the fence and coughed, "Your crazy bastard. I'll sue you for everything your worth. She owes me, and I'll always be in her life til I'm paid."

He grinned nastily, "Besides. She was mine first. And she won't ever be free of me if I have anything to say about it."

Ben growled and started for him again when a loud gunshot ripped through the air.

All looked to see who it was and most were stunned. Randi emerged from the back where her bike and Jane's car was parked. She held a short barrel shotgun in her hand, the gun barrel raised in the air. She lowered it and twirled it til it was pointed at the ground, resting against her side.

Jane was a step behind her; a large red-handled hunting knife held loosely in her hand, her gun rested in easy reach in her shoulder holster. Her Tulsa badge catching the fading sunlight making it shine like aged gold.

When they walked toward them, it was clear to all who were watching them, this was a side of them none had ever seen before. Their walk was slow and predatory as they reached them; it seemed to say 'mess with me and you'll feel it'.

Randi looked at Ben for a long moment, then smiled.

"You're a good man, Shepard. But I want a piece of him too; he owes us for the hell he put our sister threw." She grinned down at the now cowering man. "Payback's a bitch, Evan. And I've finally come to collect."

Ben chuckled and moved off to the side, "Have at him, Ren."

She smiled at him before she looked back at Evan, contempt on her face. She raised her gun, tilting her barrel under his chin so he could look up at her. She gave a sadistic smile, "Backwoods cracker, am I? We're a white-trash family, are we?" she said softly.

She sneered at him and leaned in til she could see the whites of his eyes in the dim light. "People like you disgust me. You spout hypocorism about being from a fine family and friends from the best families in Savannah. And yet, every time Sam turned her back you desecrated those vows you promised to her."

She jerked the barrel harder against his chin, "What happened to that, you sorry piece of garbage?"

He let out a small sound of fear, and she grinned down at him, knowing she was putting more fear in him.

"Well, guess what ol' boy; your marked. If I ever seen you near her or any other member of my family I'll take you out. There was a reason why I was one of Savannah's best snipers. Can you guess why?"

She stepped away from him and let out a sound of disgust, and looked over at Jane, "You want him, Jane? He's all yours."

Before he could move Jane was on him in a flash, her knife gleaming as she held it to his throat. When she spoke her voice was so calm you would have thought she was talking about the weather, til you looked in her eyes. They were as hard as onyx stones; and so cold he could almost feel the chill coming from them. "Do you remember that night alittle over a year ago when you woke up with my knife at your throat? Do you remember what I told you I would do to you if you ever came near Sam again, Evan? After the divorce was finalized?"

She held the knife within his line of vision. "I said, do you remember, Evan," she said softly.

He gulped, and nodded.

She smiled at him, "Good. Guess what, though? I won't cut them off and make you swallow them like I promise. I'll just silt your throat and laugh while I do it." She sneered at him and growled, "And you know how good the _half-breed_ is with a knife. Do you doubt me?" He shook his head.

"Say it."

"I don't doubt you'll kill me," he wheezed.

She nodded, "Good. Because if I ever hear you come near her again or hurt her. Every sound you hear or every little sound made, remember that could be me. Keeping my promise."

She withdrew her knife and sheathed it. Randi stepped back into his line of vision, "And remember this. You hurt mine. Remember me and what I'm capable of the next time you feel like calling her up, or you have a itch between your shoulder blades. It could very well be me with a bead on you: waitin'."

She smiled evilly at him and gestured to Ben.

"Or maybe even her new man. Meet Ben Shepard; one of the best damn snipers ever trained. And he's just as good as me, if not better. So keep that in mind the next time you feel like playing the man and hit her or think about makin' another entrance in her life. Cause your done makin' her miserable. Got it?" He nodded frantically.

She stepped back a step and said, "Now, you said she owes you money?" He nodded awkwardly. She glowered at him, then handed him a slip of paper. "Have you lawyer call my number tomorrow. We agree on a amount and you never contact her again. Your alimony will be paid in full with interest."

His eyes bugged out, "You got that kind of money?"

She gave a evil laugh, "Hey, newsflash dumbass. This _backwoods cracker_ is more than meets the eye. Don't worry about what I got, you have your guy call me tomorrow and what she owes you is paid."

She gestured to him to stand. "Now get up and get the hell out of here before one of us really lose our tempers and finish what Ben here started."

Ben cracked his knuckles threateningly and Jane took a threatening step toward him. He hopped the fence and started for his car, he looked back at Sam, glaring at her.

"This isn't over, Samantha." She jumped the fence and in a flash, had his head slammed against the hood of the car, "It is, Evan. I'm threw with you, I don't want to ever see you again, or hear your name. I don't even want to think about you ever again. Take the deal Ren offered. Cause I'm done. You've hurt me for the last time."

She stepped back and watched him get in the car and squeal out of there, the burnt smell of rubber from the tires was strong in the air and the roar of his engine faded as he squealed down the street and drove out of sight.

She looked back at the stunned crowd standing on the porch and the three in the yard. She let out a heavy breath. She looked at Jane, "I'm tired, guys. I think I'll call it a early night. See ya later."

She started for her truck when Ben put his hand over hers, preventing her from opening the door. She looked wearily up at him, surprised to see a gentler emotion playing over his face in comparison to the fierce rage-filled one earlier. "I'll take ya home, Sam." He lead her to his jeep. When she protested, Randi stepped up to the gate, "I'll drive you truck home, Sammie. You go with Ben and get cleaned up."

She nodded and got in the passenger seat of the jeep and waited for Ben to start the jeep. He got in the driver seat and started the engine and drove out of there. And Sam finally let the blackness that had been threatening her vision since she hit the ground, take her into a dark, blissful oblivion.

* * *

It wasn't until Ben was in the apartment parking lot he realized he hadn't heard a peep out of his passenger. He took over at her and saw her head was leaning back on the headrest, her eyes closed. He gave her a slight shake and she instantly woke up, looking around groggily. He helped her out of the jeep but when she stumbled, he picked her up, despite her protests and carried her up to her apartment.

Unfornretely, she didn't have her keys on her and there was no hidden spare. So he did what SEALs did best; improvised.

Discreetly he looked around the hallway and then pulled out a slender leather envelope and pulled a couple of tools out and picked the lock with one hand, while the other held Sam upright. He carried her into the living room and set her on the couch while he searched for the first aid kit. He found it and a minute later he was knelt in front of the couch, tending first to her cut cheek and lip. She moaned and her eyelids fluttered for a minute before they opened to reveal her pale blue eyes.

She looked at him, confused then something flashed threw them and she sat up. She smiled wanly at him, "Thanks, for driving me home, Ben. I appreciate it, but I can take it from here."

She gingerly got off the couch and started off to the bathroom when he grasped her arms and gently set her back down. He shook his head, "I don't think so, Sam. You landed pretty hard when he grabbed you, I'm checking you over and staying here til Jane or Randi gets back."

He suddenly grinned, "Looks like your stuck with me til then. Now sit still and let me get a look at that eye."

She sighed, but complied. She barely held back her wince when he touched her swollen eye. Scowling, he got up and she heard him move around in the kitchen before he came back with a bag of frozen peas. He set it gingerly on her eye; she gave a small sigh at the coolness on her burning skin. Next, he cleaned her spilt cheek and lip, taking care with both.

Next he checked her hands. Both her palms and knuckles were bruised and scraped bloody from her throwing punches and from her hands bracing her fall. After cleaning and bandaging the worst cuts, he set down on the coffee table and gave her a look. For a long moment neither spoke, and when Ben finally spoke, she wished he had just kept silent. "Why didn't you tell me you were married?"

She sighed, she really wished he had asked her anything but that. She looked at him threw her good eye, "Because it's in the past. I send him his alimony checks threw the mail and that's all the contact we have. Til today."

He leaned forward, "Sam, has he hit you before?"

She shook her head, and then regretted it when her head felt like it was going to fall off. "No, til today. He never laid a hand on me."

In more ways than one, she thought.

He sat there looking at her, waiting for the whole story. She sighed annoyingly; she wasn't going to get rid of him til she would. Besides, he deserved to know why she freaked out like she did.

"About a year-and-a half ago, I was shot on duty. Due to the circumstances surrounding the case, I'm not allowed to talk about it. But to make a long story short, I was shot and was in bad shape. I had to have surgery to repair my arm and to save my life." She looked away, unable to look at him while she continued; "I was in real bad shape when I was brought in. I had lost so much blood from where the bullet nicked a artery, I went into a coma. I was in it for a week when I crashed, apparently the trauma, surgery, and medication I was on, all mixed together and my blood pressure bottomed out. They told me I was technically dead for thirty-eight minutes before they could revive me; it was another week before I woke up."

He cupped her chin in his hand and turned her face to him, his gaze sympathetic. "I take it he couldn't stand being married to a comatose cop with all that going on."

She nodded.

"You take it right. Only he stopped coming to the hospital after the first day. We had been actually going to celebrate our six-month wedding anniversary the night I was shot. That had been the first time our 'for better or worse' vows had been tested."

She took the bag off her face and shook her head, "The fourth day I was in there, he still wouldn't come to the hospital so my aunt Brooke thought maybe he was just scared seeing me like that. So she went to our house, to try and get him back up at the hospital."

She gave a small chuckle, "Even if she had to drag him down there by the hair." Her humor left as she felt all the old feelings of anger and betrayal come back, and she fought to keep a lid on the old feelings that were threatening to run over.

She looked up at him, her eyes sorrowful when she looked at him. "She found him in bed with his old girlfriend."

She shook her head and gave a humorless laugh. "You ain't seen mad til you've seen Brooke Lewis mad. She grabbed the girl up by the hair and threw her out naked on the street and chewed him a new one. But she wouldn't tell me about it, til after I decided to divorce him. She said she didn't want it to color my view of him since he was so drunk at the time he could barely stand." She let out a annoyed sigh.

"And he kept apologizing. Said he was well on his way to getting drunk when she came over to offer her 'sympathy'. One thing led to another and they went to bed together. And it would never happen again."

She cleared her throat, "But I found out he continued to cheat on me after that, he just more discreet, and he wasn't always sober when he did it. With both women and men." He arched a brow over that, "He was bisexual?"

She nodded.

"I didn't see any of it then," She glanced at him, seeing his puzzled expression she continued, "I was in a real bad place when I left the hospital. I was told I would need extensive physical therapy and possible more surgery to help regain the use of my hand. And before I left the hospital, I was told if I was shot again in my arm I stood a chance of losing total use of my arm and I could forget being out in the field if that happened. I was so depressed and hurtin' from it all, I just didn't see what was in front of me. I just…didn't care."

Quietly he asked, "What happened to make you file for divorce?"

She cleared her throat, "I uh- I caught him cheating one last time, that had been the straw that broke the camel's back. I had come home early from a physical therapy session one day and I found him and another man in our bed. He actually invited me to join them."

She shuddered, "I burnt the sheets and threatened the same to his twenty-thousand dollar wardrobe too if he and his slut didn't leave right then. He said he wasn't going anywhere unless I divorced him."

She gave a small smile, "So that's what I did. The next day I filed for divorce and threw him out on his ear. And his twelve suitcases that landed on top of him."

Her brief smile faded and she began to tear up. "When we went to file, I found out he hired the best divorce lawyer in Savannah and had something how had it done were I had to pay alimony and he had his chose of what was in the house. He been plannin' it for a while since he ddidn't want the bad publicity of divorcing a injured cop at the time. "

She hung her head, "He-um- he took everything I had. He got to keep the house we were living in at the time. My car, I had just finished paying on. The house I owned previously I wanted to give to one of our kids one day. All our wedding presents. He took every penny in my savings account. Including my retirement fund. I set it aside from our mother's lottery winnings she shared with us." She stifled a sob and hid her face in her hands.

"He even-"

A sob she couldn't hold back escaped and she looked up at him then, tears running down her face, her eyes dark with pain.

"He even took my mom's necklace. It was a gift from dad on her sixteenth birthday. It had been a little diamond pendent he must have saved for weeks to buy it for her. She never took it off, til she gave it to me as a wedding present, she said she wanted me to pass it on to my daughter some day."

She began to cry in earnest then, out of all the things Evan took from her, taking her mom's necklace had been the worst blow dealt to her. And when she found out her dad was dead, it was like losing the necklace all over again.

Ben felt a rage like he had never felt before come over him. He had heard of some crappy things guys had done to their wives, but this was near the top of the list. He moved to the couch, rubbing a hand over her back as she cried. Quietly he asked her, "What happened? Did he keep it or give it to another woman?"

She shook her head, "No. I found out after the divorce was final, he liquidated all my stuff and sold it for cash. And to spite me, he called me after he sold my necklace, complaining it had been a cheap piece of junk and he hardly got anything for it. I found out after I sent the second alimony check he spent my retirement fund on a boat and blew the rest of it on clubs and all his trashy lovers."

He looked at her bent head and gingerly put his arm around her, she leaned in him. It was silent save for the clock ticking in one of the bedrooms. Ben decided to take a chance and tilted her head back, making her look him in the eye.

"Sam. I want to ask you something; the other night? Did Evan have anything to do with it?" She looked up into his eyes for a long time; finally she broke eye contact and nodded. "The first month after I came home, we tried to…" She blushed, shrugging her shoulders.

"You know. That had been the first time I had went without the bandages, I had just had the stitches taken out and didn't need them anymore."

She angrily wiped a tear from her cheek, "He freaked," she whispered hoarsely.

"He went pale and climbed off the bed and said it looked awful. He-he said, 'God, you look awful! My God, they disfigured you, I can't tonight! I'm sorry.' After that we never tried again."

She looked up at him then, her eyes unreadable. "You're the first man outside of my brother and the doctor to see me without my shirt on since Evan." She blushed, but continued to look him in the eye. "I freaked when you took my bra and shirt off. I-I just kept hearing Evan and seeing the look on his face the first time he saw the scars-"

He silenced her with his finger to her lips, then he did the unexpected. He leaned down and brushed a gentle kiss over her lips. Her lips tingled from that small contact.

He pulled her in his arms, resting against the back of the couch. "I'm not like Evan, Sam. He saw it as a disfigurement."

He pulled the neck of her shirt down til her shoulder was visible in the moonlit room. And he did something she never expected; he leaned down and brushed a kiss over the bullet scar. Tears sprang to her eyes at the tender gesture. He pulled back to look in her eyes.

"I see a mark of courage. A scar made while you were upholding your oath to protect the people. That makes it beautiful to me." And he meant it.

That scar made her even more beautiful to him than before. It meant she was willing to put other's safety ahead of her own, that she had been to the fire and back and was stronger for it.

She looked at him in amazement, the look in his eyes was enough to make her tremble seeing the hot look in them. But mixed with the tender look in their midnight blue depths, made her melt in his embrace. She knew then, she couldn't deny him. She cupped his face in her hands and smiled genuinely for the first time all night. "Thanks, Ben. You don't know how much that means to me to hear that," and her lips touched his in a gentle kiss. But like every time she had kissed him, it wasn't enough.

She found herself wanting more. She pushed him back into the couch, straddling him. She pulled her shirt over her head and shook her hair free of its braid, leaving a wavy trail down her arms and onto his shirt-covered chest. He cupped her face in his hand, she leaned down and took his mouth with hers, he moaned and began to run his hands over her face, down her arms, and back up, cupping her breasts threw the silk of her bra. He ran his hands up and down her waist, making her ache wherever he touched bare skin.

Finally, he reached around her, unhooking her bra. It fell away leaving her bare from the waist up to his hungry gaze. He looked up at her, a silent question between them. She nodded, saying yes to the question without answering out loud. He groaned and stood up, wrapping her legs around his waist and carried her to the hallway and the room she pointed to.

He pushed the door open and saw a lamp was already on, bathing the room in a warm glow. He yanked the blankets down and set her down on the cool sheets.

She kicked off her shoes and her hands went to his shirt, her fingers flying over the buttons and untucking it. She tossed it behind him, her hands next went to his belt buckle as his went to her jeans. In minutes they laid in the bed, bare skin to bare skin.

He caressed her skin, marveling at how soft and smooth it felt. His lips brushed over her face, taking care with her tender cheek and eye and then brushed his lips over hers in the sweetest, most passionate kiss she had ever received.

She returned it with fervor, brushing her lips over his, down his jaw, and chin trailing down his neck where she brushed a caressing kiss over his collarbone. She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck and collarbone, inhaling the scent that was all him. Musk and the fresh scent of forest, she loved that smell.

She stiffened slightly when she felt his lips brush over the scars on her shoulder and the inside of her arm. She shook her head and covered it with her other arm. He pulled back slightly to look her in the eyes. He shook his head, "No. Don't hide from me, Sam. I want to see all of you." Reluctantly she pulled her arm away, his eyes took on a hungry look as he gazed down at her. He traced the curves of her breasts then down her ribs to the tucked-in curve of her waist, finally ending at the rounded curve of her hips. He looked down at the curls that matched the hair on her head and gave her a hot, needy look that gave her shivers.

She brushed her hands down his shoulders then his arms he braced himself on, then traced back up them and down his shoulders down to his chest. He drew in a sharp breath as her nails gently scraped his nipples and the skin of his chest, making her way down his chiseled abdomen. He threw his head back and groaned as she grasped him in her hand. He pulled her hand away and took her mouth in a deep, hungry kiss. He broke away, breathing hard; a wicked glint in his eyes.

He kissed her again, this time slowly, taking his time as she moaned against his mouth; he broke away despite her protests. But her moan soon turned to shocked pleasure as his lips trailed down her body til he reached the center of her. She drew a sharp breath as he pressed a kiss to her, then cried out as he brought her to his mouth. She writhed under his ministrations, her hands went to his shoulders in a gesture to stop him, but clutched him to her instead as the pleasure intensified. She arched her hips against him, gasping as he held them still in his strong grasp. She could feel it building inside her and knew she couldn't hold on much longer. He touched her sensitive spot with his finger, a touch more than a caress but that had been all it took. She cried out as she went over the edge.

He pulled away as she panted to catch her breath. He reached over the bed and reached for his jeans, pulling a foil packet out of a pocket and had himself sheathed before she finished catching her breath. He settled himself back over her, holding himself up on his arms to keep from hurting her. He looked into her eyes, a question in them.

"Sam," he breathed.

Her breath left her at just that word. In one word he conveyed all the need and want trembling threw his body.

"Sam, it's your choice. If you want me to stop, I will."

She looked up into his eye, searching. Seeing if he was telling the truth. The look there took her breath away, she had her answer. She answered by taking his face in her hands and brought his face down to hers, brushing his lips with hers.

He moaned into her mouth, running his tongue along the seam of her lips, asking for entrance; she moaned into his mouth, sweeping her tongue with his. He gathered her into his arms, holding her hips in his strong grip. She gasped at the feel of him as he entered her. Her body stretched to accommodate his larger body.

They laid still, staring into one another's eyes. He bent his head to hers and took her mouth in a long, slow, hard kiss. She moaned into his mouth, arching against him as she felt her release begin to build inside of her.

And then he moved.

Slow and long strokes moving inside her, filling her; his hands touched her everywhere. Gentle, callused fingers brushed tears of pleasure from her face. Strong, callused palms cupped her face, holding her still for his kisses. Long, addicting kisses that made her wish they would never stop.

She caressed him everywhere she could reach. Deceptively fragile-looking hands caressed the slick, strong muscles of his back and down to his taut muscled backside. Long smooth legs caressed long hair-roughened ones as he thrust inside her, bringing her closer to the edge. Finally she couldn't take it any more and she cried out his name as she went over the edge and heard him moan hers into the curve of her neck as his body trembled with his release.

They gasped for breath as their hearts settled back to normal and their bodies cooled. Ben rolled, taking her with him, holding her to his side as he rolled to his back. She nuzzled her face in the side of his chest, smelling the musky scent of him and the faint scent she recognized as her jasmine soap. She nuzzled closer to him, feeling the strong thump of his heart under her hand. As she drifted off to sleep, Sam realized something very important happened.

Tonight was a turning point; she could never go back to being distant friends with him. And if she let herself; she would fall for him hard. Maybe she already had, and she just didn't care if it meant she got to stay in his arms for as long as possible.

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and your patience. What did you think of the love scene? If any one has suggestions for it, I'm all ears. I'm happy to hear any advice on how to improve my love scenes._


	20. Chapter 20

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. Oh, alittle note real fast: I'm going to be taking a little more care with the upcoming chapters cause their not turning out the way I wanted, so I'll be taking my time alittle bit on them._

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Chapter Eighteen

Later on the next day, Two-Bit and the guys were all sitting out in Steve's garage while they were on break, watching Soda and Steve work on Steve's restored Bel-Air in between drinking and goofin'-off. They all were still pretty amazed at the events that happened last night. Tim had been surprised and amused about it.

No one mentioned the fact that Pony's youngest, Annie, saw Ben leave the apartment early this morning on her way to school. They could say something, but in a way they didn't really have a right to say anything. She didn't grow up around them, so they couldn't all of a sudden try to play the father or uncle roles to her. And though Darry wanted to, he couldn't say much since tonight Maddie was bringing her boyfriend of a year over for dinner. A man she kept a secret from them all for the reason she didn't want him and Cooper to freak over who she was dating. And boy did he freak. She was bringing Ken Merrill over for dinner tonight.

Ken Merrill, son of the late Buck Merrill. Man who inherited one of Tulsa's oldest drinking holes and turned it into one of the most popular and wildest clubs in all of Tulsa.

A man who was a whole thirty to his daughter's twenty-two. The age difference was what was concerned him more than the reputation of the man's club. While there was four years between him and Cooper it was a big difference between four years older and ten years older.

Never in a million years would Darry have thought his sweet little girl would go for a guy like Ken Merrill. He wasn't as wild like Buck was, but there was just enough similarities that made him cautious of letting the man date his only daughter.

* * *

Sam poured herself over the file were she sat at the table. She glanced around the records room before she looked back down at the report she was reviewing. She was close to finding the piece of the puzzle it took to solve this case, but right now it felt like she was missing a key piece. She pushed the file away in disgust and rubbed her temples in a attempt to rid herself of the headache that had been pounding in her head for the last hour. She glanced at the clock on the far wall and saw it was nearing her lunch break. She set the folder back in the box beside her and stood, stretching.

She picked it up and went to the clerk up front and asked her to hold it while she went to lunch. She had no sooner walked out of the records building her cell vibrated in her jacket pocket. Before she ever saw the caller ID she knew who it was. She grinned as she flipped it open and answered, "Hey. You timed it right; I just left the records building to go to lunch. Want to go with me? I have some place I want to go on my way to get lunch." She heard his smile over the phone, "Yeah. I'm in the next street over; I can come pick you up."

"Sounds great. I'll be in front of the precinct."

She hung the phone up and began the walk to the main building of the station. She looked around the surprisingly sunny day. So far it had been nice weather for February, from what her mother told her in the past, Winter in Tulsa was worse than Winter in Savannah and that tended to say something. Next week was Valentine's day and Two-Bit and Jesse talked about hiring a band for that day and have open mike for all the romantics that night.

Ben was pulling into the parking lot as she crossed over to the main building. She got in when he pulled up to her. She grinned at him as she got in the passenger seat and buckled in. He leaned over and buzzed her quick on the lips. She wanted more, but she wouldn't have a full-blown make-out session with her boyfriend on the precinct parking lot. So she leaned back and smiled at him. They didn't go to the Dingo like she would have normally for her lunch break. Instead they picked up something at a local fast-food restaurant. Last night Darry called and left her a voice mail on her phone.

Someone that could answer her question about her dad's life before coming to Tulsa, was in town. Before Ben left this morning she asked him would he go with her to talk to the person. She took a bite of her chicken sandwich and glanced over at him while he held the wheel with one hand and the barbeque he was eating in the other.

If Sam had her worries about how things would be the next morning, her doubts were laid to rest when this morning he was still asleep in her bed. Curled up behind her, he had been sound asleep when she gently pried herself away from him to take a shower. And was confronted with a concerned Jane and Randi.

One holding her bra in one hand with a big grin on her face.

The other one, holding her t-shirt in her hand, a blush starting at the roots of her dark hair.

Despite her own worries, she assured them both she could handle it if he decided this was a one time thing. For now, her worries were laid to rest when he agreed to come with her today. And she was going to need a strong shoulder to lean on today. Because today she was going to meet a woman not even her mother had meet. A woman that had played a very large part in why her father had become who he was. Her paternal grandmother, Ingrid Winston.

* * *

Ingrid Winston-Franklin, stood from her kitchen table at the sound of a car door slamming in her driveway. She peeked out the lace curtains of her workroom and saw a tall handsome young man get out of a jeep. She saw a shadow in the car in the passenger side, but the glare from the sun kept her from seeing who it was. But judging by the size she would say it was a woman. She didn't have long to wait to see who it was; a minute later she heard the doorbell rang. She ran lightly to the armoire where she kept a few sentmential things and took the shotgun out hidden by a thick quilt. She walked cautiously to the front door and answered it, taking care to keep it hidden in the long folds of her skirt. Her years of living in New York and with a dangerous man had taught her to prepare for anything.

Ben arched a brow at the older woman that answered the door. Sam stood behind him, stunned. The doubt she had about this woman really being her grandmother vanished the instant she saw her.

It was almost looking at her self, decades down the road. Her hair was still a platinum blonde, but was liberally streaked with white threw her swept-up hair. And her eyes were like looking in a mirror. Her father was the only person to have eyes like hers, and it would appear he got them from his mom. She was around her height, give or take a inch and was close to the same size as she was. Ingrid cleared her throat, breaking threw her reverie. "Can I help you?" Sam stepped up, and the older woman blanched under her fair skin.

"Ingrid Winston?"

She nodded, "I go by Franklin now. I haven't went by Winston in years, but yes I'm her. How can I help you, Miss…." Sam hesitated, then spoke. "Winston. Ms. Franklin, I've come to ask you some questions. Is it possible for us to come in?" Wordlessly, she held the door open and they went inside.

She sat them on a long floral sofa, and set a shotgun next to the chair she sat in.

Sam silently laughed to herself.

Now she knew her affliction with guns wasn't just from her mom's side of the family. She wasted no time with niceties.

She leaned forward, "Ms. Franklin, did you have a son named Dallas Winston? And was he born in Queens, New York on November 9, 1965?" The woman's hand went to her throat, "What is going on? Why are you asking about my late son?" She took a deep breath before she continued, "Because I'm his daughter. I'm Samantha Winston."

Ingrid gaped at her, but at the same time saw the resemblance.

She had the same blond hair and blue eyes as she and Dallas shared. And while her face must be her mother's, she was the same height and size as she was.

Sam took a picture out of her jacket pocket and slid across the coffee table to her. She picked it up with shaking hands and saw it was of Dallas, and in his arms was a young girl that resembled Samantha.

Her son and Samantha's mother. She looked up and saw her slid another picture to her.

"This was taken at Christmas time. That is my mom, my twin and his daughter."

The woman in the picture was of older version of Samantha, only with short brown hair and green eyes. Samantha stood to the side of a young man holding a little blond hair girl in his arms. The little girl was smiling at the camera with a handful of teeth showing as she smiled; she favored Samantha in the face. But it was the man that held Ingrid's attention, he was how she always pictured her son grown; he also was nearly identical to her husband when he was a young man.

* * *

It was later that night, Sam was brushing out her damp wavy hair as the phone in her other hand rang. In a few minutes her mother's voice came over the line. "Hello? Sam, how are you?"  
She smiled at the happy tone in her mother's voice. After hearing the bombshell she did today, the comfort of her mother's Savannah drawl, soothed her frazzled nerves. She grimaced at that line of thought.

It would seem ever since she came to Oklahoma, her so-called nerves of steel had been shot to hell in a handbasket.

She brushed that thought aside and spoke, "Hey, mom. I'm okay. I don't want you to freak out, but I want to you to sit down. Okay?" She heard the frown in her mother's voice but heard the sound of her mattress squeak as she sat down on the bed. "Sam, is everything alright?"

She blew out a heavy breath and prepared to drop the bomb on her mom. "Yeah. Everything's fine. I went to visit someone today that Dad knew when he was a kid."

"Who was it? A old friend from New York? Surely it can't be his father, that man wouldn't have spit on him if he was on fire!"

She was taken aback at the venom in her mom's voice. But it didn't really surprise her, her dad's old man was the same as her Uncle Johnny's dad.

A waste of space that should have had their asses kicked along time ago for being such jerks to their kids.

She blew out a heavy breath. "No. Actually, I met my paternal grandmother today." Her mom's line was so silent she thought she lost connection. "Mom. Mom, are you there?"

She heard her take a deep breath before answering, her calm voice telling her more than words would.

"I'm fine, sweetheart. But could you run that by me again? Cause I thought I heard you say you met Dal's mother today." She sighed, "I did, Mom. She's alive. Dad's mom is alive, not dead like we thought she was."

* * *

Kate Miller tossed and turned all that night in her large, comfortable bed. She looked at the clock, annoyed at the time. Looked like she could tell her store manager she would be opening up today. She would be getting up in a couple more hours, but in the state she was in she would be lucky if she could focus on getting the door to the store unlocked.

She huffed and tossed back the covers and pulled her robe on, reaching for her house shoes as her feet touched the cool hardwood floor beneath her bare feet.

She walked down to the kitchen and went the fridge. She pulled out milk and a chocolate bar and heated both in a pan over the stove.

She was pouring it into a mug when she heard a sound and looked up. Val stood on the stairway the led to the kitchen. She blinked sleepily at her.

"Kate, what are you doing up? Don't you have to open the shop in a couple of hours?" She nodded and poured another mug of the hot chocolate, handing it to her. When they both took a seat at the large butcher block table she spoke. "Yeah, but I can't sleep."

She smiled over at her and patted her twin's arm, "You miss Sam, don't ya?"

She smiled, "Yeah. I miss her, she's my little girl. But that's not what's keeping me up tonight. It's what she told me today."

She heaved a sigh and took a drink of the hot drink, letting the tasted of sweet chocolate sooth her before she dropped the bomb. "Dallas's mother; she's alive."

Her twin's jaw dropped to her chest. "Are you serious? She's alive? Where the hell has she been all this time?"

Kate shook her head. "In New York, and then Boston. She and her new husband moved to Boston after Dal and his dad moved down here. They were divorced and his dad had full custody of him, wouldn't even let Ingrid write to him."

Val frowned, "Wait, I'm confused."

Kate started at the beginning. "Before Dal was born, Ingrid had been seeing a man that her father didn't approve of. Apparently they had money and Alex, the guy she was seeing, didn't. But a guy he wanted her to see, did, and he wanted her to marry him. But she said no, wouldn't give him the time of day when he pressed his suit.

So he did the unforgivable, and with her daddy's permission. He attacked her and threatened Alex if she told anyone. A month later she discovered she was pregnant, but she didn't know by who. Her father forced her to marry her attacker. James Winston. But even then, she fought her father on it, and according to Sam, he threatened to make Alex 'disappear' if she didn't marry her attacker."

She paused to take a drink of the warm chocolate before she continued, "So she did, and nine months later she had Dallas."

Kate let out a heavy breath, feeling disgusted at knowing what happened. And thankful her own father had been a kind, decent man.

Her sister's eyes widened in comprehension. "But James Winston wasn't the father. That was probably why he was such a bastard to Dal. He knew he wasn't his kid. It was the other guy's, Alex. He was Dally's real dad."

She nodded. "Ingrid never confirmed it to either men. Til Dal started getting older, she saw he looked a lot like Alex, who by then had come back and wanted her to leave Winston behind."

"But when she filed for divorce, he put two and two together and refused to give her one. She tried for months before he did something. One day when Dal was out, Winston beat her nearly to death. She was beat so bad they had to do a hysterectomy to stop the internal bleeding."

She swallowed thickly before continuing, sick feeling at what she heard tonight. "He gave her the divorce, but that was the price she paid. He beat her so bad Val, she had to have a complete hysterectomy to stop the bleeding. He deliberately beat her so bad she couldn't have any more kids."

Val gasped at that, then let out a low hiss, "That sorry bastard. I hope he went slow and painful."

Kate snorted, "Do guys like him ever get off easy?" She shook her head, but heard a grim smile in her twin's voice, "But he did. Sam said he got three-sheets to the wind one night after Dal died and walked out into oncoming traffic. He was hit by a fast-going dump truck." Val gave a grim laugh, "Payback's a bitch. And I'd say he got his." She gave a laugh, but quickly sobered and finished the story.

"When she got out of the hospital, she found out he moved himself and Dally to Tulsa. She went after them, was going to try to get him back."

Val leaned forward, "Well, what happened? Did she lose the hearing?" She snorted and shook her head, "There was no hearing. As soon as he found out she was in town to try and get him back, he gave her a ultimatum."

"Either leave and stay gone, or he would kill Dally and make it look like she did it."

She shook her head while Val gasped in shock, "That bastard! That sorry, low-down, good for nothing bastard! Well, she must have she kept her end of the bargain since he thought she was dead or abandoned him all that time. How could he do that to him? He thought she didn't give a damn about him."

She nodded, "I know. I'd like to bust his dad's boys for all the hell he put him through.

I know it hurt him, though he wouldn't have admitted it even if it slapped him in the face. I mean, he thought she abandoned him to the low-life that was his dad. She gave her word she wouldn't contact him again, if he wouldn't hurt Dal. The next day she left. But not before she met Dal in secret and told him she would be back when he was a legal adult."

She let out a heavy breath, "And she did. Her and Alex moved to Boston and got married a couple of months later. And bided their time til he turned eighteen. They came back the day he turned eighteen."

Kate felt tears sting her eyes as she told the next part. "They found out he died, Val. They held out hope for so long to see him and they told them he was gunned down like a dog."

Kate held her face her hands, "They killed him, Val. They killed my babies's father. I'll admit he was no saint. But he didn't deserve to be gunned down like he was a rabid dog!" she sobbed.

Val couldn't take seeing her twin so heart-broken and went to her side, gathering her in her arms. "Shh, I know, Katie. I know. I asked myself the same thing when I heard about Johnny. Neither of them deserved the hand they were dealt. But we have to hope that their okay up there," she pointed to the ceiling.

"Lord knows they had it bad at home, maybe taking them so early was His way of trying to make it up to them. They won't worry about getting old or getting sick. They'll be the same as we always remember them."

She nodded, but it didn't make it any better. Dallas Winston was the only man she ever loved, he had spoiled her for other men. None compared to him. And she knew it was the same for Val; Johnny had spoiled her for other men, every man she dated after him resembled him in some way whether it was looks or personality.

It was a curse; the women in their family were cursed that way. When they met someone special, there was no one else for them.

They never strayed, was always faithful, and most- like their mother-, died from heart ache when their lover died; following after him from the heart ache of losing him.

* * *

Sam looked over the crime scene photos with a experienced eye, looking for the reason something didn't make sense. But it wasn't the cold case file she had worked earlier in the week that she was going over with a fine tooth comb. She had finally pieced it together and gave her results to the lead detective on the cold case.

No, it was her father's case she was looking over with a fine tooth comb.

It was also the second time she was looking over it. The first time had been so difficult she had made it half-way threw the photos before her emotions got the better of her. She knew it had been the same for Jane.

Seeing the father you always envisioned as a invincible warrior as a kid, and then seeing him as a nothing more than kid himself that had died hard and too soon, could rattle even the strongest.

She sighed and focused her attention back to the file in her hand. She re-read the autopsy and the M.E.'s report, but when she couldn't find what she was looking for, she shoved it aside and picked up the police report and the crime scene investigator's findings.

"Let's see, perp was shot multiple times in chest, abdomen and arm. Killing shot was in the chest with a ….." she trailed off when it hit her.

The bullet that killed her dad, the gun used didn't make any sense.

She recognized the caliber used and felt a chill go through her. It was nick-named the 'Cop killer' on the streets cause so many officer related shootings were fired from this type of gun.

"Sonofabitch! I knew something wasn't right!"

But she wanted an expert before she went jumping to conclusions. She smiled to herself. "And there's no better expert than a sniper." She went over to her laptop and scanned the police report into the printer/scanner and printed out the copy. She stuffed it in her coat pocket as she walked out the apartment door and down to her truck.

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and patience. Can you guess what Sam might have discovered?_


	21. Chapter 21

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. Or the songs listed in this story. And the song 'I'm in the Jailhouse Now', is real. It's in the trial scene from 'Crybaby'._

* * *

Chapter Nineteen

Lynn Shepard carefully unwrapped a framed picture and set it on a newly hung shelf. She glanced around the living room and nodded to herself.

Better.

Ben and Tim were upstairs finishing set up the furniture in his room while she finished setting up the living room and kitchen. All of the appliances and dishes were unpacked and put away.

She walked over to a shelf sitting along one wall, straightening the wooden case Tim Sr.'s Purple Heart rested in. A old family picture sat in one frame with Tim, his siblings and their parents. Tim said it was one of the last family pictures taken with their dad before he died a freak car accident. His father stood tall and straight beside Sara Shepard in his dress uniform. Sara had been a beautiful woman. Before grief and alcoholism ravaged her. Lynn saw Angela favored her mother in the face a lot.

Another was of him in his dress uniform not long after he joined the service. A picture of Ben in his dress whites sat next to it. It wasn't until then Lynn realized just how much Ben resembled Tim Sr.

She always thought he was a near identical match to Tim, but seeing a picture of grandson and grandfather together in their dress uniforms, she saw they were nearly identical. Right down to that same cocky smile that all the Shepard men seemed to share.

Ben gave a final shove and grunt and pulled back, studying their handwork. The heavy wooden chest of drawers sat in a corner along one wall of the room. He rubbed at a scratch mark on the dark hardwood floor made from the heavy chest with his boot toe. Tim tsked and shook his head, "I told ya to put a sheet under it so it wouldn't scratch the floor."

He shrugged it off, "I'll fix it or put something over it, it ain't all that big anyhow." And it wasn't, it was all of three inches long. If he couldn't fix it he could always put a rug or something over it to cover it. Tim shrugged and walked over to the bed and picked up the hammer lying on it. He hammered a nail in two hard taps and picked up the frame propped up against the dresser. He hung it and straightened it slightly. It was a picture Ben's graduating BUDS class. Ben had been the youngest member in the class at twenty; a kid in comparison to most of the men in the group. But Ben had been a exception, he had scored extremely high in all the tests and exams. And had been deadly accurate with a firearm in weapons training.

Ben opened the top drawer of the chest and placed his gun cleaner in it's box and set it in a corner of the drawer and pulled several handguns out of a box and placed them in the drawer, setting them in their foam holders. In no time the chest was filled with his weapons stash, carefully concealed under clothes and blankets. Next he pulled out a army locker and placed a long range scope rifle, couple of handguns and his K-BAR knife in the customary foam places, pushing it under the bed.

Waiting to be packed up for his next deployment.

But that wouldn't be for a while; a week after he came back he put in a request for leave of absence and it was granted. His last mission had been a rough one and he needed some breathing time. He had been offered a position at the Oklahoma Naval base; and he was considering it. Which said something for a man that had thought he was going to be an active SEAL til he retired or was forced into it.

It was dark by the time his parents left and he was heating up a pizza in the oven. He hadn't asked them to help, but he was glad now he accepted their offer to help. Without their added help, it probably would have taken the better part of three days to unpack and set the place up. Now, as he walked into his living room and sat down with his plate in hand, he saw his ma had done a good job. His medals and SEAL graduation pictures hung or sat scattered around the room.

A picture of his grandfather in full dress uniform held a place of honor over his stereo. The shelf below it held his Purple Heart and the flag presented to Gram Sara at his funeral sat in a triangular case next to it.

He flipped on the tv and flipped threw the channels and found a action movie on and set back on the couch. He was polishing off the last slice when he heard a knock at the door. He glanced at the clock, he wasn't expecting anyone. He shoved the last bite in his mouth and set the plate down and took out his gun from its hiding place and walked softly to the door. He opened it a fraction and looked outside, keeping his gun out of sight. Sam was looking back at him with a amused expression on her face.

"Put the gun away, Navy-boy. I come in peace." He chuckled and shook his head, but opened the door wider and let her in. She and only his dad knew he always carried a gun when he answered the door. Occupational habit. She walked in and stopped short when she saw the living room.

"Wow. Your good. It took me the better part of a week to move into my apartment. You got it done a few hours. I guess what they saw about SEALs is true." She grinned at him wickedly, "They are fast at everything."

He shook his head and pulled her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. "You didn't think that a couple of nights ago."

She blushed and shook her head, "Arrogant man. You were definitely good and you weren't fast about it." She cleared her throat and walked over to a table and turned a lamp on. "But round two wasn't why I dropped by. I need a expert's opinion." He arched a brow at her. "I'm not an expert." She shook her head, "Yes, you are. You're an expert on guns. And I need a gun expert. Take a look at this copy of a police report I found. Tell me what this says." He sighed and took the folded paper from her hand and unfolded it. He sat down and skimmed over it.

He frowned when he saw what caliber bullet that made the killing shot. That didn't make any sense, that kind of gun was not a regulation gun cops carried, now or back in '81. He looked up at Sam standing in front of him. "This was made by a Fabrique 5.7. It's nicknamed the 'cop-killer'." She nodded, "I know. It got it's name cause it was used in so many officer-related murders."

He set the paper down, "Is it possible it was a secondary gun or a off-duty weapon?

She shook her head and started to pace.

"It's a possibility. But that don't make any sense. I don't know of a cop that would carry that gun. They would consider it bad luck to carry it seeing how it got it's name. And that was not a gun used on-duty, it's too powerful. And I don't see someone carrying it off-duty either." She stopped pacing and took a seat next to him on the couch, "Ben. What I'm about to say, has to stay between us. Not even Jane is to know this, at least not til I'm sure about my suspicions."

He looked at her sharply, "What are you suspecting? Foul play?"

She nodded, "Yes. We both know a cop would try to get the perp to release their weapon before opening fire. Especially if it was a kid. They wouldn't just open fire on them, it don't matter if he was a hellion or not. I think someone shot him and then the police opened fire when the first shot was fired." He leaned back, "That's a pretty far-fetched theory, Sam."

She nodded, "I know. But, Ben this just don't make any sense. My dad's whole case doesn't make sense. The cops did a open-and-shut case simply because of my dad's past record."

He shook his head and leaned forward, "Even if someone did that-and I'm not saying it couldn't have happened- how can you prove it? I mean this happened twenty-five years ago; hell, most people don't remember what they got for just this Christmas. How can you find the proof, if there is even any to be found?"

She grinned, "Why, Benjamin didn't you hear? I'm the pride and joy of the Cold Cases Unit. I'm the one they go to when no one else can find proof."

* * *

It was three days away from Valentine's day when one day out of the blue, Jane and Sam invited the guys over for supper.

Just the guys.

Steve and Soda were the first to arrive and knocked on the door. No answer. After knocking for a third time, and Darry and Two-Bit showing up, they used the spare key they told them about. Steve turning the key in the lock when Pony showed up. Darry ruffled his hair, "I'll be, for once your semi-on time." He rolled his eyes and fixed his hair, "I'm not that bad." Steve snorted, "Please. You were late for your own wedding!"

They all laughed at his expense and Soda opened the door and they all walked inside. As soon as the door was opened the aroma of fried chicken and the starchy scent of potatoes cooking greeted them. But it wasn't that that surprised them as they entered the living room. A radio was going on in the kitchen and the sound of someone singing did.

They walked to the kitchen and was surprised at what they saw. Jane stood over the stove stirring a pot of potatoes, her feet were bare and her hair was pulled in a sloppy bun on the top of her head. A stained apron covered her shirt and jeans; in that moment it was like they were seeing Val back when they were teenagers and her and her twin would invite them over to supper or surprise them by cooking dinner in the months after their parents died.

The image faded when they heard Jane begin to sing along to a song on the radio.

"I could stay awake just to hear you breathing, Watch you smiling when your sleeping…."

She swayed gently from side to side to the rhythm as she sang, her voice growing stronger as the beat sped up. It was almost strange to hear such a strong, beautiful voice coming out of such a tiny, delicate-looking woman. The song ended and she smiled to herself. Unaware they were staring at her, spellbound by the power of her voice. Finally the silence was broken.

"Where did you learn to sing like that?" Pony asked her. He didn't remember either Kate or Val singing when they were around them.

She jumped and spun around to see them all looking like she had grown two heads. She felt her cheeks heat, she didn't like for many people to hear her sing. She cleared her throat and smiled shyly at them.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you guys come in. Supper's almost ready, Sam had to pick up some last minute things at the store then we're good to go." She went to the counter and began chopping vegetables with surprising speed and then dumped them in a skillet that immediately started sizzling. The guys took seats around the table and the barstool in the corner while she cooked. Again, they were struck by how much she looked like Val in that moment. Two-Bit cleared his throat, "Does Val sing, cause you got a good voice, Girlie."

She smiled, "No, Mom don't sing, neither does Aunt Kate, but Sam and me both can." She shrugged. "Mom figured I picked it up from dad or someone from his side of the family since the Millers aren't exactly 'musically-inclined' as she put it." Pony chuckled at her words.

She turned from the carrot she was chopping. "Did Dad or Uncle Dallas ever sing? I've always been able to and so has Sam, but our moms can't carry a tune in a bucket."

They all chuckled at her description. Soda shook his head, "I don't think I've ever heard Dally sing and most days Johnny rarely spoke what alone sang."

"Johnny could sing."

They all turned to Darry, the men's gazes shocked, while Jane's was curious. She set the knife to the side and stirred the various skillets and pots before turning down a eye before hoisting herself up on a countertop next to the table.

"Really? My dad used to sing. Was he any good?" He nodded, remembering the one time he caught the shy greaser singing.

"Yeah, I had come home early from work one day, it was before our parents died. I heard someone in the kitchen and there was Mom and Johnny setting the table for supper. Johnny was singing along to a song on the radio."

He shook his head and smiled, "You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard him, had a good voice too." He grinned sheepishly, "I promised Ma I wouldn't tell anyone, she didn't want him to be embarrassed."

There was a stunned silence in the room. Then Pony broke the silence, "Ma knew it? For how long? I never knew that the whole time I knew him!"

Darry shrugged his shoulders, "Ma said he could for as long as she could remember. I guess he just didn't want anybody to know."

Jane shook her head and opened her mouth to say something when a crackling sound sounded threw the air. She jumped down from the counter and rushed over to the stove, "Crap!" She pulled the heavy skillet off the eye and set it on top of a pot. She flipped the chicken over, taking a few done pieces out, "Phew! For a minute I thought I burnt the chicken. Sam would never let me live it down if she thought I actually burnt dinner!"

"You mean like the fact you never let me live it down I accidentally accelerated the grease fire in my new apartment that time?" They all turned to see Sam standing in the door way with a grocery bag in hand. She pulled a plastic bag out and tossed it to her, "Got the rolls. They didn't have any French bread in the bakery so I got this." Jane set them on a cookie sheet and set them in the oven.

"Sam, you tried to put a grease fire _out with a bottle of white wine!_ You're the only one that didn't think that was bad. If I didn't know you, I'd wonder if you were drunk that night."

She rolled her eyes and went to a upper cabinet and took a prescription bottle out and shook two pills in her hand. Two-Bit gestured to the bottle, "What's that? Surely that ain't diet pills cause you already thin." She shook her head and swallowed them with a glass of water before talking, "No, their my insulin." They looked stunned, "You're a diabetic?"

She shook her head, "Not exactly. I was injured last year and went into shock, the diabetes was a side effect of it. But my doctor said if I continued with the program he set up for me, my diabetes should be cleared up in the next year to year-and-a-half." Soda frowned, "So that's it? You just try to follow the program and it should be taken care of."

She looked hesitant then spoke, "There is one other thing. My doctor strongly advised me not to get pregnant in the time span he's talking about. He said as of right now with everything going on, I would have a higher chance of a complication with the pregnancy or the delivery. Or the baby stood a higher chance of having birth defects."

The kitchen was silent except for the sound of food sizzling in their pans.

Jane came over to the table with a stack of plates, "Okay, good dinner conversation. Thanks for the visual, Sam. Anybody hungry?" She didn't have to ask twice.

* * *

The next day Maddie, Wendy and Randi went with Jane and Sam to go dress shopping. This morning Jesse called to inform them that Two-Bit signed them up as part of live entertainment on Valentine's Day at the bar. It didn't help their case of refusal when Randi let it slip they used to sing in night clubs to help pay for college.

So there they stood in a department store, picking out something to wear to the club. Maddie held up a dress to Sam, "This would look good on you." Sam looked down at the dress and grimaced then back at Maddie.

"It's yellow."

She shrugged, "It matches your hair."

Sam put it back on the rack. "And I'd look washed-out in it. Same with white or orange, I'd either look sick or look like a ghost in it."

Jane held one up to her, "This color looks good. You always did look pretty in pink."

She rolled her eyes; Jane knew she hated pink with a passion. She took it from her hand and held it away from her; she might make a exception with this one. It was a deep-rose color, so technically it wasn't pink. And the style looked like something she would feel comfortable in.

She threw it over her arm, "Alright I have a possibility. What about you Jane?" She shook her head, "Nothing yet. This is the disadvantage to being so short. I have to practically shop in the kids department." Randi laughed. "Try being me, Jane. I've been shopping in the women's department since I was ten. And now I'm having to go up a size or two." She patted her stomach in emphasis. Neither could believe Randi was two months pregnant already. The doctor figured she could have the test done by the second or third week of March, then they would have roughly a week to wait for the results.

They wondered over to the petites section of the store, where Sam gleefully dangled a strapless dress in front of Jane.

"It's so you, Jane."

She arched a brow at that, "It's brown. And not just any brown; it's the most god awful ugly brown I've ever seen!" Sam laughed ant hung it back up, Jane hated brown as much as she hated pink.

Randi called out from a rack across the aisle, "Jane, I found one with your name on it. If it don't scream you, I don't know what will!"

She came around the clothes rack and held a red dress out in front of her. Jane's eyes widened in surprise and laughed.

She took it from her hand and walked over to a mirror hanging on a wall and held it up to herself, nodding to Randi, "Your right about that, Ren."

It was a red silk halter dress that fell to her knees in silky folds, a red and gold brooch held the low-cut neckline together for modesty. With the clothes in hand, they went back to the dressing room and went to try them on. They stepped out for their approval, Randi smiled widely at them while Maddie looked surprised. Randi smiled, "Ya'll are going have them eatin' out ya hands. And Ben and Pete tripping over their feet to get to ya!"

Valentine's Day was here, and was it a hectic day for them all. Maddie was going to split her time between Uncle Two-Bit's bar and Ken's club that night.

But she didn't mind it since they no longer had to hide their relationship. And to be honest with herself, it felt like a thirty-pound dumbbell was lifted off her when she finally told her family she had been seeing Ken. To her surprise, her dad hadn't freaked.

Of course it could have helped Cooper brought up the fact her mother hadn't been thrilled when she first brought Darry home to meet her. She had actually been flat out hostile when she found out about the four year age difference. And it didn't help when she heard her seventeen year old daughter was dating a twenty-year old grown man that had custody of his two younger siblings. Thankfully Grandmom had warmed up by the time her parents decided to get married. Thank god for moms.

Randi walked threw the bar door and looked threw the crowded audience for a familiar face. She found it in the form of Wendy and Maddie waving her over to a table up near the stage. She could see from where she was standing Jesse and most of the younger kids were there sitting around several tables pushed together. All the kids were there, even Roxie and Candi. According to Jesse, they closed the bar down and was only serving non-alcoholic drinks tonight. The bar was buzzing with everyone talking and laughing, she heard one woman cry out, "Yes!" as she passed a table.

She walked to the front and smiled at Maddie and greeted Wendy, it wasn't until she pulled back from Wendy that she noticed the table was silent. She frowned at Jesse who looked like he was about to drop over. "What's wrong? Do I have something on my dress or my face?" He shook his head, "No. No, your beautiful." To her surprise, she felt herself blush and quietly thanked him, her surprise turned to amazement when he stood up from his chair and graciously offered it to her. She sat down, looking at him with new eyes.

Jesse caught himself looking over at Randi several times while they waited for the band to start up. She looked over at him and he looked away, feeling his face heat up at being caught staring at her.

This is ridiculous, he thought.

He was a grown man, he had seen a attractive woman before and done a lot more than hold a chair out for one too. But he couldn't help it. He had always thought her attractive, but tonight she was outright gorgeous. Her hair was done different tonight. She wore black heels that made her long, shapely legs look longer under her black knee-length dress. He could also see if he looked hard enough, a slight roundness to her stomach that was carefully hidden by the loose, flowy dress.

It was another three weeks before the test could be done and then another week to get the results. Weeks he was still in indecision; on one hand he knew if the test said he was the father, his life would never be the same again. On the other hand he was founding himself hoping this child was his. He mentally shook his head, and looked over at Randi who was sippng a Sprite while she listened to something Annie was telling her. He always figured he would go crazy-with his family it wouldn't be all that hard- he just didn't know the cause would be a five-foot-ten voluptuous redhead.

When the bar was filled to capacity the band started up a tune that everyone recognized. When it ended Two-Bit and to most surprise, his wife, Lan came up on the stage. Two-Bit took the microphone out of its stand and began to speak.

"Testing. Testing. Can yal'll here me?"

The crowd hollered out and laughed as he made a joke. He cleared his throat and said in a more serious tone, "Ladies and Gentlemen the last two years has brought a lot of changes to our favorite bar. Me and my son, Jesse, bought it and well, we kept a lot of things the same. But we've added on a few things to make it even better. We added on karaoke-and-free-beer night." Several in the crowd cheered and whistled at that.

"We've even made it were the youngins can hang out here. And this year my wife finally talked me into to something that would be for all ya'll lovebirds. Startin' this year on Valentine's Day, we're goin' to have the stage free for anyone who wants to get up here and sing a song for your sweetheart. Or you can do it for the hell of it."

Lan rolled her eyes at her husband's choice of words. She yanked the microphone out of her husband's hand and made a show of strangling him with the cord. The bar started laughing at their little show. She kissed him on the cheek, unwrapped the cord from around his neck, and spoke into it. She smiled sweetly at her husband and said in a sugary sweet voice, "Well in this case, honey I think you should start off the night with _'I'm in the jailhouse now'_."

The crowd oohed over that. He laughed and before you could blink he had her in his arms, he bent her over his arm and gave her a toe-curling kiss. Sol and Jesse booed with everyone else but both had to admit it was nice seeing their parents who were high school sweethearts still so much in love after all this time.

They came up for air at Steve's "Take it outside you two!" They all laughed at their identical expression. He let her up and released her, taking the microphone from her loose grip.

"Am I still in the jailhouse, Mrs. Mathews?" She patted her hair back into place and gave him a mysterious smile that only he apparently knew meant.

At least judging by his expression, they all thought.

She spoke into the microphone; "Anyway, ladies and gentlemen we have a real treat for ya. We have all the way from Savannah; a couple of genuine singers, give it up for Sam Winston and Jane Cade!"

A spotlight shone off stage and showed Jane and Sam walking up to the stage steps and walked to the two microphones standing a few feet apart from one another.

Pete's jaw dropped down to his chest when he saw Jane walk on to the stage. She wore a red halter dress that fell to her knees. Her hair shone in a blue-black curtain down her back in the stage light. Makeup reddened lips and made her dark eyes look even darker, giving them a smoky look.

But it was Sam that looked different the most. Her usual braid was loose and fell in platinum blonde waves down her back and flowed around her waist. Her glossed pink lips and rosy cheeks gave her glowing look. A dark rose-colored dress hugged her slim curves, covering as much as it showed.

The crowd gave a polite applause while Randi went wild as they took the stage. Ben couldn't help but notice how gorgeous Sam looked in the dress, he decided then he was going to get her in that dress as often as he could. Just so he could have the pleasure of getting her out of it.

The band hired for the night started playing and Randi recognized the tune instantly; it was one of the few songs all three women agreed on despite their various taste in music.

With the first verse sung the crowd was spellbound; just like they were when they sang in the club.

_Oooh oooh, ooooh yeah, mmmm..._

_Love can be a many splendored thing_

_Can't deny the joy it brings_

_A dozen roses, diamond rings_

_Dreams for sale and fairy tales_

_It'll make you hear a symphony_

_And you just want the world to see_

_But like a drug that makes you blind,_

_It'll fool ya every time_

Several nodded their heads in agreement to the words of the song. There was a reason for the saying 'love is blind'.

_The trouble with love is_

_It can tear you up inside_

_Make your heart believe a lie_

_It's stronger than your pride_

_The trouble with love is_

_It doesn't care how fast you fall_

_And you can't refuse the call_

_See, you got no say at all_

Now I was once a fool, it's true

_I played the game by all the rules_

_But now my world's a deeper blue_

_I'm sadder, but I'm wiser too_

_I swore I'd never love again_

_I swore my heart would never mend_

_Said love wasn't worth the pain_

_But then I hear it call my name_

Many of the women in the crowd nodded her head along to the words, softly singing or mouthing the words to the song. Love could be a two-edged sword; it could be the greatest thing to ever happen to a person, but could also destroy the one it touches. And none knew it better than the two women singing the song.

_(The trouble with) The trouble with love is_

_It can tear you up inside_

_Make your heart believe a lie_

_It's stronger than your pride_

_The trouble with love is_

_It doesn't care how fast you fall_

_And you can't refuse the call_

_See, you got no say at all_

_Every time I turn around_

_I think I've got it all figured out_

_My heart keeps callin' and I keep on fallin'_

_Over and over again_

_This sad story always ends the same_

_Me standin' in the pourin' rain_

_It seems no matter what I do_

_It tears my heart in two_

_(The trouble with love is) The trouble with love, yeah_

_(It can tear you up inside) It can tear you up inside_

_(Make your heart believe a lie) Make your heart believe a lie_

_It's stronger than your pride_

_(The trouble with love is)_

_It's in your heart_

_It's in your soul (doesn't care how fast you fall)_

_You won't get no control_

_(and you can't refuse the call)_

_See, you got no say at all_

_(The trouble with love is) Oh, yeah_

_(It can tear you up inside)_

_(Make your heart believe a lie)_

The bar was eerily quiet as the last note faded away. Then suddenly the room buzzed with applause, whistles and a few catcalls from the audience. The guys and their wives were applauding and hollering from the back at the bar.

None of them knew they could sing like that; they had heard Jane sing before and knew from her, Sam could sing. But together the beauty of their voices was amazing, hauntingly beautiful one might say.

The applause was still going on when they left the stage and sat down at their table. It finally quieted down when Two-Bit came up to announce the next singer.

Candi looked at them in amazement. "I had no idea you guys could sing. You guys, are awesome! I can't wait to show my audio teacher my tape!"

Ben and Peter silently chuckled when the two started blushing underneath the enthusiastic teenager's praises. Randi laughed and grinned at the girl, "How do you think they got through college? They sang at the clubs whenever the owners needed a couple of female singers. And I want to buy a copy of that tape." She grinned at her sisters, "I can't wait to see Aunt Kate and aunt Val's faces when they get that tape from me as a Valentine's day gift." They both groaned as she continued to laugh. Kent looked thoughtfully at them, "So what did you guys work at in the mean time?"

Jane smiled and took a sip of her cola before she spoke.

"I worked as a martial arts instructor at a local dojo part-time. I actually still taught there til a couple of years ago when the owner retired and closed it down, after that I taught at the Y downtown on the weekends."

The table sat in stunned silence. If you looked at Jane, you wouldn't have thought she would be the type to have worked at and still working at something so hard-core. But that was the thing about appearances; they were always deceiving.

Patti looked over at Sam who was sipping her tea, "So Sam, what did you do in between singing gigs? Were you an instructor like Jane? Your pretty good if that day at the gym was any thing to go on." She sighed and fiddled with the straw in her drink.

"No, I was a stripper at a club a couple of streets down from the club that always called us."

At that admission Jane and Randi spit out their drinks on the floor as the rest of the occupants either laughed or sat with their mouths open in shock.

Sam noticed at her admission Ben's eyes turned hot with so much heat she could almost feel the heat waves coming off from them. She fought down her blush as she laughed at her sisters's expressions. She laughed so hard, her stomach began to hurt, but she continued to laugh.

"You should have seen your faces when you thought I use to work as a stripper. Oh, that was priceless. Candi, I hope you got _that_ on camera!"

They both mocked choked her as she continued to laugh but her laughter was contiguous because they soon joined in. When Jane could talk without laughing she said, "Ha ha, Sam you better hope aunt Kate never hears you say that. You know how she feels about that, even joking."

She shook her head, grinning, "You know she-" before she could finish the sentence her cell phone rang. "won't."

They all laughed as she pulled out her phone and turned the speaker on. Before she could even say hello her mother's Savannah drawl came over the speaker.

"Samantha Caley Winston what the hell do you mean you were a stripper! I ought to sic your brother on you!"

With the exception of Sam, Randi, and Jane, the whole table froze. Randi shook her head and whispered to the table, "Don't worry you get used to them doing that. Mom, Aunt Val and Kate have done to us enough it doesn't faze us." Jesse gulped and Roxie's wide eyes looked at her like she was a carat short a diamond.

"But how did they know what she said?" Bri whispered.

Randi looked over at her with a amused and annoyed expression. "Because my mother is a friggin' witch, that's why."

Before anyone could utter a word in shock at her saying such a thing about the mother she highly respected; Randi's phone rang.

She rolled her eyes and answered the phone.

Brooke's deep southern drawl; much like Randi's came over the speaker on the phone.

"Randi Serena Lewis, are you taking care of my granddaughter?"

Randi rolled her eyes and sarcastically answered, "Yeah, Mom. I'm feeding her chocolate and whiskey and plan to dance naked on the stage later on with the bartender's son." Jesse grinned and leaned over where her mother could hear him. "I wouldn't mind trading the naked stage dance for a naked lap dance."

"Jesse!" she socked him hard in the arm.

"Ow! Dammit, woman I was only speaking the truth!"

Brooke practically cackled at his comment.

Randi could practically see her mother and aunts laughing so hard they were about to fall off their seats.

Brooke coughed to clear her throat and said laughingly, "So you're the one that got my daughter knocked up."

He looked uncomfortable, "The test hadn't been done it."

She made a sound, "Don't matter. You still the one in question. You just take care of her and treat her like a lady, even after the test is positive. Cause if you don't…Forget breaking medieval on your ass. I'll break Wiccan on your ass! We clear?" He nodded then realized she couldn't see it, "Yes ma'am. We're clear."

"Alright. Now, Randi I just called to wish you happy Valentine's day and see how your doing. And how many times do I have to tell ya I'm not a friggin' witch, I'm a friggin' Priestess now!"

She rolled her eyes, but smiled, "I'm fine, Mom. How are you?"

"I'm good. Listen, I'll call you later. Kate's got the margaritas ready and Val's got Harry Nilson on. Oh, and don't worry. I'll send you all the provisions for your little dance. Only, make it a lap dance, sweetie. Worry about the strip tease in your second trimester. Bye."

Randi hung up the phone and shook her head at her mother's warped since of humor. She looked over at her adopted sisters and saw the same expression on their faces that was most likely on hers.

She held up her glass and said, "To my mother. Now you all know why I'm a stark-raving loon." They all laughed and Sam and Jane nodded, clinking their glasses with hers. "Tell me about it." The three women that raised them were crazy at their best; and were stark-raving Looney tunes at their worst. But they all loved their mothers and would walk through Hell itself for them.

* * *

It was going on eleven when the band packed up and the patrons began leaving. Going home to ready for the next day. It was going on midnight when Jesse finally locked the bar doors and they headed to the parking lot where his truck was parked. He was dropping her off at the apartment, they had got so involved in talking they had lost all track of time. To her surprise, they had a few things in common.

Both loved action and comedy movies. Both had a motorcycle and had participated in the Motorcycles across America at one time. She had lived in two of the most haunted cities in the US. He had always been fascinated by the supernatural.

They were about twenty feet away from the truck when five guys came out of the shadows of a dark alley. Randi silently cursed herself for not observing the signs. She had preached it to women in her self-defense class about walking to or near shadowy or darkened areas at night. And she waltzed right into it.

Jesse tensed as he saw five guys emerge from the shadows of the alley. He saw two of them had been guys he had graduated with. He also saw by the way they carried themselves they were Socs from the other side of town. All were well-built and looked like they were spoiling for a fight.

He risked a glance in Randi's direction, she held herself calmly, a silent show of confidence showed in her posture. Til he saw her eyes; they resembled green pieces of glass.

Three of the guys had clearly been drinking if the glazed look in their eyes was any indication. The biggest one took a large gulp from the beer bottle in his hand, and sneered at them, "Well, boys look who we have here? It's Mathews and his latest hump bunny."

They laughed cruelly at the insult.

Randi laughed with them, but anyone with a brain would know it was not a pleasant laugh. She sauntered up to the biggest one; she was oblivious to the fact the way she walked was pure sex. And Jesse wasn't the only one to notice how she moved, or how her dress clung and flowed around her voluptuous curves. They eyed her like a hungry man eyed a T-bone.

She smiled up at him and that wasn't an easy feat when you're five-ten without the two inch heels on. When she spoke her drawl dripped from her voice like thick honey.

"Oh, hon. Look what we have here. A bunch of drunk dumb-asses who have nothing better to do in life."

She sighed dramatically, looked back at him, then looked back at the scowling group, and tsked.

"So much trouble. 'Cause us so much trouble," she said with a fake Romanian accent.

The big one sneered at her and threw a punch that would have broken her jaw had she not backflipped out of the way, his big fist hitting air where she had been.

She landed in a crouch and kicked his legs out from under him. She smiled from her crouch, "Any other takers or my man and me free to go?" The big guy stumbled to his feet and took a swing at her only to have Jesse grab his fist and twisted his arm and sucker-punched him in the belly and kicked him out of the way.

In a instant two guys grabbed her and two more tackled Jesse to the ground before he could intervene. She kicked and squirmed when the big guy's powerful arms picked her up like a child.

He laughed low in her ear, "My boys are going to have fun with you, bitch. Then I'm going to show you how a real man shows you your place. Dirty greaser bitches don't know their place; I'll make sure you do."

She felt a moment of panic well up when the man's powerful arms squeeze her painfully. She shook it off, the baby would be fine. But she felt her temper began to burn and that was bad. There was a reason why she walked away from confrontations when she was mad.

And he was about to see why.

She jerked her face to the side, "We'll see about that, _cheri_. Cause your about to see why you don't piss a Cajun off."

She glowered at the two men stationed at her feet that were looking at her like she was a prime rib. She hissed at them and she kicked them hard in the chest with her feet. They would probably have a nasty bruise tomorrow from her heels but she could care less. All she cared about was her and Jesse getting out of this parking lot in one piece. If that meant she had to bust some heads, so be it.

She pushed her feet against the wall behind them and flipped herself out of Big Guy's grasp. She landed on her feet and immediately took up a fighter's stance. He started to hit her again; she sidestepped the blow and landed him with one of her own. He went to his knees from the blow. She brought her leg up and caught him hard in the face with her heel. He went to the ground holding his bloody face.

Two of the guys were getting up and started for her on either side. Before they could blink, she spun and kicked out with her foot catching him hard in the stomach while the other she nailed in the crotch and spun back around to catch the other guy hard in the chest with the palm of her hand. He went flying into the wall behind him and slid to the ground, unconscious. She looked back at the other guy and waved her fingers at him, "Come on."

He shook his head and took off, running down the street like a bat out of hell. She looked back at the guy on the ground holding his face. She rolled him onto his back with her feet. And had her gun in hand and pointed at him before he could blink.

She pressed her heel sharply into his chest and smiled down at him, "Show me my place, huh?" She cocked the hammer back and pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting concrete three feet away from his head. She glared down at him, her eyes snapping green fire at him. "I think you should leave now. And the next time you see me, walk away in the other direction. Cause if you think I'm an easy target, think again."

She leaned in where he could hear her, "Next time I won't be so nice, and I don't miss. Just remember that the next you have a itch between your shoulders. It just might be me." She pulled her foot away and nudged him on his side, jerking her head to the street. "Go. I was showing restraint tonight, I won't a second time." He stumbled to his feet and ran off down the street. She watched him run off and out of sight as she took deep breaths to get her temper back under control.

She turned her attention back to Jesse and stifled a grin when she spotted him. He was holding a tissue to his bloody nose and had one of the guys pinned to the brick wall in front of him. She noticed the other two were gone. Most likely they realized she was crazy when she pulled the gun and fired it.

She shook her head and walked towards them, "Jesse. I leave you for five minutes by yourself and look what you get yourself into."

She tsked at him, he smirked at her. "Well, were I was standing it looked like I should have been helping the other guy instead of you. Were you'd learn all that stuff?" She shrugged her shoulders, "Jane. I told you she was dangerous. But did you listen? Noo." She walked over to the truck and snatched up her purse and came back. She pulled a set of handcuffs and put them on the guy, Jesse cocked a eyebrow at her, "You have handcuffs in your purse? What else do you have in there? And do I get to use it?" She rolled her eyes at him, "Pervert. Does your mama know she raised a perv?" She clapped the cuff and turned the guy around to see her would-be attacker.

He wasn't as old as she thought he was since the group he had been with were all in their twenties. He looked all of seventeen, eighteen pushing it. Then she saw his eyes. They were blazing blue fire at her and Jesse, but beneath the hard sheen, she saw something she knew all too well.

Fear.

Fear he was trying hard not to show, but at the same time, was. She knew those eyes, the face was different but she knew those eyes. They had stared up at her in hopeful trepidation six months ago when she found him.

"Bobby Wilder?"

The boy froze at his name being called. She felt sick inside, she knew this boy. He was the reason she decided it was time to move on and let go of the past. He had grown up in the last six months; gone was the small skinny little boy and in his place was a tall powerfully built young man.

He looked at her with recognition in his eyes as he got a good look at her face. He looked surprised and ashamed all at once.

"Detective Lewis? What are you doing here?"

She didn't answer for a few minutes as she looked at him and fought the urge to remember the awful way she had met this boy. Then again, death is never a good way to associate memories or meetings.

She gave herself a mental shake and nodded to him, "Yeah, Bobby it's me. Although you can call me Ms. Lewis now or Randi. I'm retired from the force now."

He gave her a shocked look. She turned to Jesse, "We're giving him a ride home, Mathews." Both looked at her with a surprised look on their faces. Jesse shook his head, "The hell I am. That little bastard nearly broke my nose; he ain't getting in my truck!" She arched a brow. "Yes he is."

She turned back to Bobby, who was shaking his head. "And you are coming with us and you won't say a word. Cause, you and I are callin' on your Mama tonight and tell her why I'm delivering her _underage_ son on her doorstep at-oh I don't know- about twenty til _one o'clock in the morning_." He hung his head, appropriately chastened.

It was one in the morning when Jesse finally pulled up in front of his apartment. After a lot of arguing on Randi's end, she finally agreed to just stay the night at his place so she didn't disturb Jane or Sam. She left a message on both of their phones and took the oversized shirt from him and slept on the couch, despite him insisting she take the bed. Or that they were both adults and could share the bed without anything happening. Little did Jesse know, she wasn't worried about him making a move while they shared the bed. It was herself.

* * *

The next day Jesse ran Randi by the apartment to change and shower. She sighed as the hot water ran over her, after the dressing down she received from both her sisters, she needed to relax herself. While she adored her adopted sisters and brother, their overprotectiveness was sometimes annoying. Granted she was the 'baby' of the family, but she was twenty-four years old.

Contrary to popular belief, she could make her own decisions and was capable of taking care of herself. She sighed and turned the water off and began to dry off, when she realized her clothes weren't in there. She wrinkled her nose. She went to the door and peeked out and saw no sign of Jesse. She hurried to Jane's room and took out some clothes of the chest Jane let her use. She was about to put her bra on when Jesse knocked on the door and walked in. It took her half a second to yank the towel off the floor and over her chest. But it was a half a second too late, judging by the look on Jesse's face. She glared at him and pointed to the door. "I'll be ready in a minute, Jesse. Now get out!" He lingered for a moment, giving her a look much like the guy from last night. Only instead of feeling dirty and annoyed, it made her feel….desired.

Randi decided to test the waters on how brave Jesse Mathews really was and let him drive her bike out to Soda's farmhouse just outside of town. The test was weather or not he would wreck her precious bike and she would be forced to kill him. Which was looking like a possibility with the way he was handling the road's sharp curves as they drove outside the city limits to Soda's horse farm. After his wife, Alli inherited her late uncle's horse farm died several years ago, he and Alli had been working nonstop to make the once profitable horse farm, back to it's former glory.

Jesse pulled his helmet off and looked over his shoulder to see Randi's expression. She nodded, her eyes bright. "Not bad, Mathews." He ran his hand threw his hair and set the helmet on the bike handle, discreetly adjusting his jeans. The woman behind him had no idea how bad he wanted to stop the bike and take her up on the offer she was unconsciously offering. The woman was all sex and didn't even realize it. Too bad he wouldn't know if she was as intense in that area as she was in the rest of her life.

The first thing Randi saw when she pulled her helmet off was how beautiful the land around her was. It was a small farm with horses scattered threw out the property. And along the fence that separated the land around the house, was Soda on top of a big brown stallion. He was dressed in full cowboy gear, complete with the black Stetson and heavy denim jacket. He grinned when he spotted them and tipped his hat to her and in an exaggerated drawl, "Howdy, Miss. You lost or something, cause I surely would have recognized a pretty little thing like you?"

She chuckled at the 'pretty little thing.' She might have grown into her looks but she hadn't been a little thing-height or weight wise since she was a little girl; with a tall voluptuous mother and a tall, muscular father she learned to accept how God and genetics made her.

She pulled her hand into a fist holding a invincible fan and batted her lashes and with an high exaggerated Southern drawl, "Well, I do declare sir. You could charm the bees right out of their honey!" Both men threw their heads back and laughed at her. She chuckled and went back to her normal voice, "Is this Mickey Mouse or even Mickey Mouse the second?"

He frowned at her slightly at her question, she shrugged coming closer to the fence, "I grew up around Kate and Val Miller the last fourteen years of my life. Most of what Sam, Jane and Al know, I know too from the stories."

He nodded his head in understanding, he guessed in a way they seemed like long-lost family to her as well if she grew up on the stories about them. He remembered the twin sisters; but most of the memories had faded with time. But the first time he met them would always stay with him.

He was vaguely aware of the pair telling him they were going in the house and walked off. He absently told them to tell Alli he would been in after giving Mickey Mouse the Second his exercise and rubdown. He was lost in memory the first time he had ever met the Miller girls…

_Sodapop watched from his seat in the theater house as Dallas leaned in close to the girl in front of him. She turned around to face him tapping her nails on the back of her seat; he had been bothering her for the last ten minutes before she turned around. She spoke in an thick Southern accent he had never heard before, "Is there something I can help you with or are you bugging me for the hell of it?" _

_For the first time Soda knew Dally, he was speechless. He wasn't use to a girl talking to him like that, but that speechlessness didn't last long. He grinned at her, leaned forward, and said something he couldn't hear, but judging by the color in the girl next to her cheeks was any indication Dally was being his usual self. _

_Then without warning the girl, he had been talking to grabbed the collar of his jacket and pulled him close to and whispered something in his ear then let him go. He sank back down into his chair and for the first time in all the time he knew him, he saw his cheeks flush. Soda saw both Johnny and Steve were looking in shock at Dally too. A couple of minutes passed then the two girls moved a couple of rows down from them. He saw they were identical in looks and coloring, but it ended there. One was tall and slender while the other one was short and delicate-looking. The tall one wore a pink dress and white sweater while the other wore jeans and a green sweater. As they got up he noticed Dally watched every move the girl in the pink made as they moved down a couple of rows. As they sat down, he heard Dal say so softly he almost didn't understand what he said, but he heard it all the same. "I think I'm in love."_

* * *

Alli looked up at her husband's footsteps and handed him his usual glass of chocolate milk. He gladly took the glass from her, then pulled her into his arms and gave her searing kiss on the lips. They didn't part until they heard the catcalls surrounding the kitchen table. She broke the kiss to see her daughters acting disgusted and her brothers-in-laws laughing along with their families.

She smiled up at her husband; even after all this time his kisses still affected her like the very first they shared when they were teenagers. The second time she didn't think would match up to the first time, but the day school let out for summer and she was no longer Bri's teacher, he proved her wrong.

Patti spoke up when they both sat down at the table, "Hey Mom, could you take me to the bookstore later on today? Desiree Amóur'snew book is coming out today and I'm so looking forward to it."

Annie looked up at the mention of her favorite author and she noticed Julie perked up too. Though none of their dads understood their love of the series thankfully, their moms convinced them they would be okay. Meg noticed the three women sitting together shared a goofy smile; she had a feeling it was going to be a something judging by their barely suppressed grins.

She saw Steve noticed their look too, "What are you three smiling about?" She silently groaned and debated weather she should hit him upside the head or not. She just shook her head at her husband. Subtlety had never been the man's strong suit.

That might be why on their first date she found out he had been crazy for her since the first time she took her car over to his garage.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by the sound of a choked off snort. She looked over to see Sam and Jane trying not to laugh. Finally, Sam took a deep breath and spoke, "Did Randi ever tell you what her mom does for a living?"

She gave a mock mean look and rolled her eyes and finished the bit of pancake before speaking. "You mean besides bugging me to settle down, get married and give her lots of grandkids?"

Jane rolled her eyes and smiled at her younger sister, "Well, you're giving her two out of three; that ought to get her off your back for a while." Sam cleared her throat and looked pointedly at her younger sisters. "Back to the point, girls." She shrugged and said casually, "My mom is Brooke Lewis aka…. Desiree Amóur."

The table was silent for a moment before the three teenagers erupted into excited squeals while the rest of table's occupants looked surprised and confused.

"Oh my God! Your mom is Desiree Amóur?! She is like the best author ever! I love her new series about the ghosts."

The three quickly finished their food and went into the living room, talking in excited whispers. How cool was it to meet the daughter of their all time favorite author? None could get over it.

The rest of the group ate and helped cleaned the kitchen when Jane's cell phone started ringing. She looked up at Sam in surprised when she saw the number, "It's my case worker. I'm going to go into the living room and take it." She nodded and she went into the now empty living room and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Jane this is Ruth Armstrong from Savannah Social Services."

She felt her insides quiver at the significance this call meant. She moved closer to the front door so she knew she would get a good signal and not miss anything.

"Alright, what's the verdict?" She heard the papers shuffled on the desk as she found her file and petition.

"They moved your hearing up to this fall instead of the spring. Congratulations, Jane. They approved of you. By the early fall Mikey Richards is legally yours. And their going to send your file to the Okalahoma social services for you to petition to become a foster parent in their state as well."

"Jane?"

"Jane are you there, hon?"

Jane was so stunned all she could do was stand there with the phone in her increasingly shaking hand. Mikey was hers.

She shook her self and answered, "Yeah, Ruth I'm here. Thanks so much, I'll call you later and let you know how things are going here. Alright, bye."

Jane hung up her cell phone with a shaky hand. She was trembling so hard she could barely hang onto the phone.

She couldn't believe it. She started smiling and before she realized what she was doing, she was bouncing around the room screamin' and hollerin'.

Sam and Pete were the first ones to rush into the room. She took a flying leap into Sam's arms and they landed in a heap. "I'm approved!"

She looked at her confused, "What are you approved for, Jane?"

She smiled dumbly at her and hugged her again and to her embarrassment felt tears sting her eyes. She leaped up and was bouncing on her feet, so excited she couldn't stand still.

"I'm approved, Sammie! They approved of my petition. My hearing is this fall."

She grinned and laughed, jumping to her feet and grabbing her in a hug. She knew this had been news Jane had been waiting for for a year.

Peter started to open his mouth when Pony asked what she was talking about. She smiled and started bouncing on the balls of her feet. This was the most excited Sam had seen her in a long time. She smiled as if she was bursting to tell the world her happiness.

"I've been approved, guys! The social services in Georgia approved my petition to adopt my foster son! As soon as the paperwork is filed and approved by the Okalahoma Family Services I can bring him out here and be his adoptive mother."

Her voice cracked and she gave a watery smile and saw Sam give her one back; she knew more than anyone outside of her mother how badly she wanted to call Mikey her own. "My case worker said by early fall the adoption would be formalized and Mikey would be mine."

Pony and everyone else congratulated her on her impending parenthood. She was so happy and bubbly she went around the room hugging and kissing everyone. That is til she got to Peter, she had kissed him fully on the mouth before she realized what she was doing.

She pulled back once she realized what she was doing and felt her cheeks flush. They might be unofficially dating, but she was still alittle shy about showing him affection when they were around others.

After another round of congratulations from everyone, she went outside to let it sink in. She shakily sat down on the porch swing and let it all sink in. She was going to be a mom. She never thought she would hear those words after the doctor's diagnosis; but she was and she wanted to savor them in private.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps a few minutes later. Pete was standing in front of her, smiling down. With the sunlight coming threw the screened porch she realized just how handsome and tall he was. She had seen it before-she would to be blind not to see it-but today she really saw it.

He had dark hair like Wendy's but everything else was his father. He was the very meaning of the phrase, 'tall, dark and handsome'. She smiled up at him from her seat on the swing and patted the empty place next to her. He smiled back at her and sat down beside her. She couldn't help but smile as she thought back to the conversation with Ruth.

She was going to be a mom. She was going to be a mom to a seven-year-old boy; a little boy she already thought of as hers.

She felt the tears she had been holding back, slip past her closed eyelids and no longer tried to hide them. She jumped at the feel of someone touch her cheek. She opened her eyes and raised her head from the back of the swing, seeing Peter looking at her with a concerned expression. She smiled at him tearfully, "Don't worry I'm fine. It's just I never…"

She sat up wiping the tears from her eyes not looking at him. She knew she couldn't look at him as she told him something she only told to one other person. And that had been the worst day of her life with the exception of two other days.

"I just never thought I would get to be a mom. I always figured that would be something I just wouldn't get to experience." She felt him move closer to her and touch her arm. "What do you mean, Jane? You're a young healthy woman you could have children." She shook her head and took a deep breath, "Pete, I have something to tell you. And I'll understand if you don't want to take our relationship any further." She took a deep breath, "Pete, I-"

She was cut off when she heard a motor come down the road, a blue Saturn accompanied the sound a second later.

A woman and young man stepped out of it. Jane recognized the woman as Nell Wilder, a concerned mother from a case several months ago. But the guy she was with, looked vaguely familiar. But when they stopped short of the porch and the boy smiled up at her with shy blue eyes, she realized with a start who it was.

Bobby Wilder.

She heard the door slam open a couple of times and heard several voices and glanced behind her to see most of everyone on the porch.

Pete glanced back and saw a look of anger flash across Annie's face, then it faded before he knew it.

He inwardly winced when he realized this was the Bobby Annie had talked about. She had a big crush on him all last year and the first part of this year, til he finally asked her out. He heard from Sol that he stood her up and laughed about it at school with his friends; saying he got a big kick out of seeing Greaser girls think they had a shot at a Soc like him.

He was drawn from his thoughts at talking. Bobby smiled shyly up at Jane and greeted her.

"Hi, Lieutenant Cade."

He adjusted the collar of his shirt as he looked at Lieutenant Cade. She hadn't changed since he met her that night six months ago; but he knew he had.

He shot up and had started working out earlier in the year to make the wrestling team. He no longer looked like the scared bloody, beaten little kid they found huddled on the floor of that warehouse that fateful night.

She smiled down at him from her position on the porch. "I'm on off-duty, Bobby. Jane is just fine, now get that tall backside of yours over here and give me a hug." He laughed and stepped up to hug her; she stepped down and embraced him.

* * *

Nell looked up at Jane and shook her hand, "It's good to see you again, Lieutenant." She smiled, shaking her hand, then pulled her into a hug, "It's good to see you again, Jane," she whispered. She pulled back and looked over her shoulder, her gaze drawn instantly to the tall redhead standing in the shadows of the porch. She smiled up at her as she stepped into the light and smiled down at her. She walked up to her and hugged her tight, "It's good to see you, Randi. How are you doing this morning?"

She pulled away and laid a hand against her flat stomach, "I'm okay." She stepped away and grasped her son by the shoulders. "Bobby has something he wanted to say to you and Jesse. I didn't give him much time to do much talkin' last night." She heard Jesse snort in disbelief. She only hoped the big mouth didn't speak up then. "Lady, you chewed him a new one and rimmed him a new one. He didn't have time to do anything!"

Looked like she didn't get her wish.

She turned back to him, "Jesse, do me a favor and go put something in your mouth. Like your foot." Two-Bit laughed and clapped him on the back. "She got you good, son." She shook her head; and to think, a month from now she was going to find out weather or not she was related to these people.

Heaven help her.

She looked over at Jesse, but directed her words to Nell and Bobby. "How about we talk out here on the porch." Jane and Sam got the hint and they asked Alli and Soda to show them the horses they were training. Pete's beeper went off just as he was walking to the door and he headed off to his truck to the hospital.

Bri and Mike grabbed their coats and helmets, saying they had to go down to the station and open. Kent offered to take the girls down to the mall and get the book they were wanting. But he wasn't foolin' anyone much, everyone knew he was looking for a reason to flirt with the sales girl at the sporting goods store in the mall. A couple more left, while a few more went in to watch a movie.

They sat down on the porch swing and chairs; Bobby was silent for a long moment before he spoke.

"I'm sorry. About last night. I'm sorry."

Jesse snorted and shook his head, Randi leaned forward, making him look at her. "Why, Bobby?" He shrugged and looked away. She knelt down in front of him and lifted his face to hers. "Bobby. What did you promise me when you got out of the hospital?" He didn't answer her. Finally he turned his gaze to hers and it tore her heart out to see such a wise, ancient look on a boy so young. "You asked me to promise you not to get into trouble when I went back home. To not let him have a hold of me, to get on with my life."

She nodded, "I did. But, Bobby last night you were. You were letting his hold on you rule you. Promise me you won't go with guys like them, looking for trouble." She looked up at Nell and saw the troubled look on the older woman's face. Something wasn't right with Bobby and Nell saw it too.

She looked up at Nell then at Jesse on her side, "Guys, could you give us a minute?" Nell nodded; for some reason she knew the woman would reach her son where she or the therapists couldn't. Jesse frowned, but reluctantly got up and went in the house after Nell.

She moved back into the swing and waited til she heard the movie blare in the house. "Bobby, what's wrong?" He shrugged, looking everywhere but at her. "Are you doing the activities your therapist suggested?"

He shrugged. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, "I'll give you credit. Your as stubborn as a your Mom." He gave a ghost of a grin and looked up at her, "Yeah, she is," he frowned, "I don't deserve her." She shook her head, "Yes you do, Bobby. In case you forgot, you're a teenager. That means your suppose to be giving your mama hell. It's a rite of passage. I did, she did. Our grandparents did." He gave a small smile, "Yeah, I have been a prick here lately to her." She didn't bother to correct his language. She used it and worse in the past. He got up and started walking the length of the porch, agitation in every step. Finally he stopped in front of her, when he looked at her she could see his eyes held a mix of emotions.

"I miss him." She didn't pretend to not to know who he was talking about.

"It's so freakin' weird. But I miss him." She nodded sympathically, "It's not so weird. We all miss our parents when they die. My dad's been dead for eight years, but I still think about him." He snorted and shook his head, and continued pacing. "Yeah, but your dad was probably one of those that you hear about in the movies and the book. My dad was not one of those dads."

She gave a soft, humorless laugh.

"My dad was a sorry-ass drunk from the time I was seven til the day he died when I was sixteen." He stopped in his steps and turned around to look at her. She nodded, "We all have something about our dads we don't want to think about or want others to know."

He glared at her, "You don't know jack! You don't know what it's like! You don't know what it's like to have your dad to beat you every night. Sometimes just because you're there and your mom isn't. I hated them both for that, til I realized that she got beat more than I did, most of the time protecting me."

He started yelling, but his last words ended on a quiver. She looked at the window and saw Nell. She looked out with a agonized expression on her face. She wanted to go to him, but she knew this had been building for a long time and he needed to let it go. To let it out. Randi waved her away, and after a long minute, she walked away from the window and let the other woman handle it, despite everything in her telling her to go to her son.

Randi walked to him, softly and silently. She ached to hold the teenager to her, soothing the pain she knew he felt.

Instead, she put a hand on his shoulder, feeling her chest tighten when he flinched under her light touch; she knew he was remembering with that flinch.

She leaned into him and said softly, "I know how you feel Bobby." He shook his head and she nodded, "Yes, I do. I know you don't think it but I do. I know what it's like to have your daddy become a monster over night and not understand why. I know what it's like; afraid to go to sleep at night because your afraid he'll see that as a reason to punish you."

She took a breath and said the words that only one another person in this whole world knew about it. Her voice went thick and hoarse with emotion as she tucked his chin up to look her in the eye; wet blue eyes met liquid green ones.

"I know exactly how you feel, Bobby. My daddy used to beat me too."

* * *

_Thanks for the reviews and your patience. I'm sorry it took so long getting this out, but this chapter was a little hard to write. And Sam having diabetes as a result of shock-that's true. I've heard of some people developing it after they've been in bad shock or a real bad trauma._


	22. Chapter 22

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively._

* * *

Chapter Twenty

The horses were amazing.

Sam couldn't but laugh when one near the fence nuzzled her hair, Soda grinned, "That is amazing. That horse only lets Alli come near him, that's the first time I've ever seen him go near a stranger."

She stroked his velvety nose and smiled. Jane stood back from the fence and said, "Sam's always been good with horses. Her and Al both are." She chuckled, "You should see Shelby when she get near a horse. You'd think you gave her a life-size candy bar rather than a horse."

Soda laughed, "She'd loved it here then. We have a Shetland Pony mare coming here in the next couple of weeks. Maybe he'd be interested in buying her." Sam rolled her eyes, knowing her brother he would want to buy it for Shelby, even though she was still learning how to walk. He loved that little girl to the point of spoiling her rotten. Soda looked back at Jane and gestured to her, "Come on, Jane. I'll introduce you to Dixie. She's real gentle."

She smiled, but shook her head. "No thanks, Soda. I'm okay here." Sam saw his frown of confusion and elaborated, "Horses don't like Jane. If she gets near one like I am or try to ride one, they go crazy." Him and Alli looked at her and she nodded, "It's true. It must be my scent cause they always go crazy when I go near one."

Sam laughed and turned back to her and grinned, "But tell them what will go near you. You ain't never gonna believe it. I didn't either til I saw it."

Jane shook her head and rubbed her neck then grinned at them sheepishly, "Snakes."

Alli's jaw dropped while Soda's eyes bugged out. He shuddered, he hated those ugly buggers. Sam picked up a handful of oats out of the bucket and began to feed them to the horse. "It's true. When we were thirteen one summer, Jane was walking threw the woods around our house when she stumbled on a snake's nest. A big rattler's nest."

Both Curtises shuddered at the idea of a rattler. They could bite and kill ya before you even knew it. Sam shook her head, shivering at the memory. "Well, it didn't bite her. It wrapped itself around her arm and actually nuzzled her chin. When we came up on her, the thing actually hissed at us!"

Jane laughed, "Your just still annoyed you screamed like a girl and practically crawled up poor Al to get away from it!" Soda laughed at the image while Sam stuck her tongue out, "Ren was right, they come to ya cause they think you're their queen. You cold-blooded like them, you crazy thing!"

Jane rolled her eyes, "I take offense to that. I'm short and skinny, of course I'm cold-blooded; I have no body heat!" Sam laughed at the quirky joke she always said. "And another thing, this came from a woman that grew up with alligators as pets." She faked a shiver, "Now that's scary."

They looked around the stables and was shown all the horses they were either currently breeding or training. Several of them were actually stabled there to either breed or train with Soda and Alli's horses. It turned out twenty years ago this had been a very profitable business that Alli's uncle started and ran. But as he got older and he couldn't spend as much time with the horses, the farm had started going to ruin. But five years ago when he died, he left it to Alli. They had restored and been gradually boarding and training horses since then, Soda figured in the next couple of years he and Alli could retire from their full time careers and make this business full-time instead of part-time.

They were walking back to the house when Soda saw a small figure toddle to them. He smiled when he saw the small toddler, and gestured to Alli, "Looks like we have a little customer. Cute little thing. Though I haven't seen that much hair on a baby since Roxie was born." Both Sam and Jane turned at those words. Sam turned around just in time to have the little girl jump on her.

"Aun Sam!" Sam grinned at the giggling little girl and held her up high.

"Shelby! How's my favorite niece in the whole world?"

She giggled and squealed with delight when she held her on her waist and dipped her over her arm, her little blond curls brushing the ground. Jane stood over her, grinning. She picked her out of her arms and spun her around, making her laugh. "Miss Shelby, what in the world are you doing here? Did you finally get sick of your Daddy and drive your little Corvette down here?"

"No, but she would have if I had let her." They all turned at the deep male voice. Jane and Sam smiled when they saw him, but Soda went white.

It was Dallas. Soda shook himself and the image changed. Instead of a tall blonde-haired blue-eyed teenager, a man about Pete's height stood in front of him. This had to be Al, Sam's twin and Jane's cousin. He had seen a brief picture of him and knew he looked like Dal, but seeing him up close and in the flesh, he saw he more than resembled him.

He looked how Dallas would have looked once he reached adulthood, only he was brown-haired and green-eyed. He wore a heavy brown coat over a dark blue shirt and worn jeans, scoffed heavy work boots were on his feet.

He looked casual, but at the same time, gave a confident, business-like air to him. Then he looked at the two women holding the little girl between them and his whole demeanor softened. He went first to Sam then to Jane, hugging and greeting them both. He scooped the little girl up in his arms and grinned into her laughing face. "No hug for Daddy? Ya little brat, you don't greet me like that when I work twenty hour days in a week." She threw her cubby little arms around him and gave him a sloppy kiss on the face. "Thank you."

He looked past Sam and Jane and spotted them. He smiled sheepishly, "Sorry. Didn't see ya there. I'm Al Winston. And judging by the description my sisters gave of you, you must be Soda and Alli Curtis. It's a pleasure to meet you."

While Soda wasn't his usual charming self, Alli made up for it.

"Dallas. It's a pleasure to meet you. And this adorable little girl. Sam, Jane, and Randi told us how adorable she was but I see they weren't exaggerating." He smiled and shook her outstretched hand. "Thank you, it's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Curtis. And please, call me Al."

* * *

"…and that was when we moved down to Georgia." She paused and looked at the boy sitting in front of her. His eyes wide, making him more like the child he was. "My granddad told my mom that if she ever was in trouble and he wasn't there, to go to either one of the guys from his old unit in 'Nam. Darrel Curtis in Oklahoma or Brian Miller in Georgia."

"That night she packed me and her up and drove all night to Savannah to look for Brian Miller, hoping he would take them in til she could get us to a safer place."

"But he wasn't there," he guessed shrewdly. She nodded, "She discovered he died when she was a teenager, but she met his daughters and told them she was a poor divorcee who needed a fresh start. My aunt Kate and Val offered to let us stay and them and mom would spilt the mortgage til she figured out what to do next. They had just moved back from New York and had Sam, Al and Jane with them and needed a fresh start too. We ended up staying with them permanently, and Mom became a honorary sister to them and I became their baby sister."

She looked up at the sound of voices and knew who they were. Outside of her mom, Al and now Bobby knew about her life before they came to Savannah. And only Al knew the complete story outside her mom. She wanted to keep it that way. At least for the time being. She gestured to him, "Come on. Let's go inside. I'm sure your mom will want to talk to you." He nodded, still wrapping his mind around all she told him. All the time he talked to the court-appointed therapists and his mom, never did he feel more at peace than talking to Randi. She really did understand what he was going threw, because she had been there herself.

And it gave him hope, if her dad was as screwed up as his own and she came out okay; that meant he wouldn't become his ol' man. And that had always been his biggest fear, it had been the reason why he pulled crap he did with Annie.

He knew the first time he met her, he knew she was special. And that was why he made sure she would hate him, his ol' man went after a girl that had been too good for him and it got him a lifetime of trying to prove to everyone he was worthy of Nell Holden and making his life hell.

Pony looked up at the front door opening and saw Bobby and Randi come in. Bobby walked over to Nell and they went in the kitchen to talk. A minute later the door opened again and Soda, Alli and Sam and Jane came in.

But that wasn't what stopped his heart in his chest, or make him glad he was already sitting down, cause he would have surely fell over in shock. It was the man that came in behind them, and as the room slowly went silent he saw everyone else saw it too, hearing Steve mutter, "Oh, my God".

He held a little blond, curly-headed toddler in his arms, her bright blue eyes looking around the room in wonder while the older adults studied her father with surprise.

The man was a near exact replica of Dallas.

He had green eyes instead of blue and brown-haired instead of blonde. He was a little taller and muscular than Dal was. But there was no doubt in his mind who he was. Sam's twin brother. And Dallas and Kate's son.

Al spotted Ren sitting on the couch arm and wasted no time telling why he was here. "Ren, you, me and Sam have to talk. I got a call a couple of days ago from Evan's attorney discussing the agreement of Sam's alimony payments." He looked over at Randi meaningfully who suddenly found the picture beside her very interesting, "It seems someone paid the amount set for Sam to pay to Evan as alimony. Plus interest. And seeing as Evan is a greedy bastard, that was a lot."

"Ren? You dipped into your inheritance, didn't you?" She thought about denying it, but as her attorney, all Al had to do was look at her bank records and see she activated the account. She nodded, "Yep, and it was money well spent considering Sam has the money-sucking leech off her back now."

Sam frowned, "He actually accepted the offer? How much did you offer him, Ren? Please tell me you didn't dip into the fund Aunt Brooke gave you from her lottery winnings." She shook her head, rubbing her neck. This was what she didn't want to talk about, but knowing Sam she wouldn't let it go til she told her.

"No, it's not from what mom gave me. It's from my dad. When he died he left me a trust fund. I never touched it til recently."

She frowned, "How much? Cause if I remember the agreement of the alimony, right, it wasn't cheap. Which you're both right, Evan is a greedy bastard and I'm grateful you got the money-sucking leech out of my life."

She smiled, "I would have done it even if it took everything I had to get the bastard out of your life," her smile fading, "My inheritance is a good amount, when I was born my granddad Deveraux bought some stock in my name and put it in a trust for me to build over time. I was to get it when I turned twenty-one, but I just let it set in the bank til I figured what I'd do with it."

Jane put a hand on her arm, "Ren, how much? Is it more than what we have sitting in our retirement funds?" She nodded and all three gaped at her.

Sam sputtered, "You have over two million dollars sitting a bank account? Is this before or after you paid Evan?"

"After. Granddad was always smart about what to invest in and what not."

Al cleared his throat, "Just tell me the amount, Ren. You can't shock us more than you already have."

It turned out, she could.

* * *

"It comes out to alittle over twenty. The banker that I talked to said it was more than that, but after all that happened in 2001, stocks have all gone down."

Sam gaped at her, "You have over twenty million dollars in the bank? And you never told us or used it? For god sakes, Ren why not?!"

The room let out a gasp as she said the amount.

She sighed, "I don't want to talk about it, Sam. I think I'm going to go back into town. I'll talk to you later."

Steve let out a harsh laugh, "Gonna go spend your millions? I should have known you were rich."

"Steve!" Meg cried out. She slapped him upside the head.

She turned around and glared at the older man, "You don't know jack about me, Randle. I never touched that money cause as far as I'm concerned it's blood money."

She had the screen door pushed open and walking down the steps when another voice called out to her, "Randi, hold up!" She looked back and saw Jesse jogging up beside her, everyone standing on the porch behind them. "Not now, Jesse." He pulled her to a stop, "Yes now. What do you mean 'it's blood money'?"

She glared up at him, "You wanna know the truth? Fine, it is. I got that money because my grandfather felt bad that he didn't try to put a stop to it all." He frowned, confused, "I don't understand." She sighed, "Six months after my seventh birthday my dad started beating me. The first time was to show my mother what would happen if she tried to runway again and take me with her. He started beating her after my birthday and she took me and tried to run six months later."

She swallowed the lump in her throat, "He beat us everyday til I was ten. That was when we finally escaped him." She glared back over Steve, "I know your dad wasn't good to you either. But you don't know how bad mine was." She looked over at Pony, "You told Jane that a old friend of yours once told you, that things were rough all over. That it wasn't just greasers that had it bad. Socs did too. She was right." She looked back at Jesse, letting him see what she had been hiding.

"That was the disadvantage to being rich and well-known. Every time I tried to tell a teacher about him, he bought them off. If I tried to tell a cop, he'd lie and say I had been acting out in school and had been telling wild stories about how I was beat at home. And they believed him. I mean who wouldn't have in our town, he was Ray Deveraux, nicest guy around."

She swallowed back her tears, "For the next three years I tried to tell someone what was happening at home, they would brush it off. You have no idea what it's like to need someone to help you and no one would believe you cause your dad either bought them off or made you look like a mental case." She pulled her arm and he let go, but when she started for her bike, he was there. He pulled the key from her hand, "I'll take you back to town." She didn't argue, she wasn't in much of the mood to fight him. He pulled out of the driveway and down the road, with Randi holding onto him from behind. But they all could see her eyes hid a painful secret. One that Jesse would soon learn of.

* * *

_Thanks for the reviews and your patience. Oh, who all would like to see a version of what I did with Darry and Cooper with one of the other guys and their wives?_


	23. Chapter 23

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. Oh, please ignore some of the spelling-my spell check decided to be stubborn and not work._

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Chapter Twenty-One

Jesse parked the bike in front of his apartment building and killed the engine. He figured what ever Randi had to say, it wasn't something either would want wandering ears to hear. He opened the door to his apartment and let her inside. She didn't sit down like he did, she just wandered around the room, picking up a picture frame here, a magazine there. Finally she spoke, "I guess you know that my daddy used to hit me," her voice soft and low.

He nodded, "Yeah. But if you don't want to talk about it-"

She shook her head, "No. I've kept this hidden too long. I told Bobby to let go of the past and move to the future." She let out a shaky breath and turned to face him, "It's time I practice what I preach."

She sank down on the chair across from him and fiddled with the zipper of her jacket, a sign she was nervous. Finally she took a deep breath, "It was a couple of weeks after my seventh birthday, that Daddy started hitting Mama. She never said if there was a reason behind it, but she said the first time he had ever hit her, he was drunk."

She shook her head and looked up at him, a whirl of emotions swimming in her face. "Mom forgave him, cause it was the first time and he had never been drunk before. She said the only time she could remember him having so much as a sip of alcohol was on their anniversary. He continued to drink after that, and hitting her. He just made sure I never saw it or smelled the bourbon on his breath."

She shuddered at the memories her words brought up, she could still smell the bourbon on his breath and clothes even after all these years. But Jesse realized now why she would look ill when he reached for bourbon in the bar.

She cleared her throat and continued, "By December, she had had enough and packed us a bag and took off that night. He-" She stopped, her eyes glistening as she remembered. "He found us an hour before we left New Orleans. He dragged us home and tied Mama to a chair and beat her." She rubbed her chest to alleviate the tightness, but couldn't.

"He made me watch him, and then he beat me too. After that, he started hitting us both."

She fell silent as she tried to regain her composure. He quietly asked, "Did you and your mom ever try to leave again?" She nodded silently, "Two more times. It got worse after the second one since she went to my uncles for help." Her eyes blazed with such hatred he would have stood back if he was standing.

"They sold her out for a damn boat and a couple of kegs of beer. Their baby sister! And they sold her out. My dad was there when we tried to escape through the bayou." She began to shake as she remembered the second time they tried to leave. Tears began to fall down her cheeks unnoticed as she looked at him with unfocused eyes.

"He-he dragged us off the boat and tossed us to the ground and walked over to mom and he hit her. He- he hit her so hard, I heard bones crunch as she fell to the ground. Then-then I heard him drag some chains that was on the ground and chained her to a tree. And I kept thinking, 'Why is he doing this? Why out here, in the bayou?'

Then he-he grabbed a tree limb that was on the ground, and he kept-he kept hitting me with it. Everywhere. No matter how hard I'd tried to get away, or screamed. Then he hit me in the head," she touched her head, "I started hearing a ringing sound and then nothing. I don't remember much after that. The rest is what Mom told me." She looked at him, her eyes focusing on him.

She touched her left ear and spoke, "It turns out I passed out from the pain. When I woke up I was in a hospital in Metairie. The ringing I had heard was from my eardrum rupturing." She took away her hand and a ear piece sat in her palm. "I'm completely deaf in my left ear; this was the only way I can hear out of this ear." She fitted it back over her ear and continued to speak, "It turns out two members from my mom's coven, Melisande and her husband, Philippe were out in the bayou and heard our screams."

She looked up at him with haunted eyes. "When they got there, they saw he was still beating me with the limb and Mom was screaming and covered in blood. Between him beating her and her struggling so hard to get free, she looked like she came from a horror movie set. Philippe knocked dad back and scooped me up while Melisande got mom free." She looked at him with sad, bleak eyes. "My mother isn't a violent person. Any time she's ever hit someone it was always in self-defense. That night she had to be literally dragged away because she nearly killed my Dad." She heaved a shaky breath, "A month later, with the help of a underground women's shelter, Grammy and some of the members of my mom's coven, we escaped to Savannah."

He leaned forward, catching her attention. "Why Savannah?"

"Because of my grandfather. He told my mom years ago, if she was ever in trouble or in danger, to go to Tulsa, Okalahoma and find Darrel Curtis. Or go to Savannah, Georgia and find Brian Miller. He told her either one would protect her if she needed it. Well, she heard Darrel and his wife died in a freak train accident not long after her dad died. So late one night, she packed everything she could fit in her old Impala and we drove all night to Georgia."

She sighed, "But when she got there she found out he died years ago and his only family left were his daughters and no one had heard from them in years. The day before we were suppose to leave they came back. When they heard of mom coming to look for him; they offered us to stay with them til mom could figure out what to do. We stayed on and started going by different names. We took back mom's maiden name and she told everyone that she was a divorcee looking for a fresh start." She looked up at him then, "I don't know if she ever told them the truth. Al was the only person outside of my mom that knew everything that happened. And now you know."

He frowned at her, "Why tell me all this now?" She let out a heavy breath, "Cause I need to know something, Jesse. My parents were young and clueless when they had me. We're not teenagers, but I don't know anything about being a parent. And I know you don't know much more than I do. I need to know, if the test shows you are the father; I need to know if you'll stay in this baby's life. Cause if you won't, then we need to get it out in the open now."

It would kill her if he said no, but she would rather it would out in the open early, than her daughter go down the road and find her father found her a mistake. Lord knew she heard it enough from her father during that time. He stood up and knelt in front of her taking one of her hands in his. He looked up in her eyes, and gave her his answer.

* * *

The next morning, Al woke up to Shelby giggling to a woman's voice. At first he thought it was one of the girls. Then he cracked a eye open and saw a blond teenager leaning over the crib instead of one of his sisters. He looked around the room and recognized it now; he was in Soda and Alli's guest room. And it was one of the twins bent over the borrowed crib.

Patti, Naomi, he couldn't remember; they both looked alike with blonde hair and hazel eyes. He sat up and caught her attention; she looked over at him and blushed bright red. He glanced down at himself and realized he was bare-chested. He forgot about that, he discreetly looked under the sheets and saw to his relief; he still had on his jeans from yesterday. He got up on the opposite side of the bed and zipped his rumbled jeans and tossed on the shirt from last night.

He walked around the bed and over to the crib where Shelby was bouncing up and down chanting, "Dada! Dada!" He chuckled and swooped her up, making her squeal with laughter. The girl seemed to regain herself, she smiled at them both, "She was already up when I passed your room. I was going to see if you wanted me to take her down to breakfast."

He smiled at the teenager, "Thanks, but I got it. Shelby's picky about who feeds her." She nodded, "Well, I'd better get my work clothes and hurry back to school," and she walked down the hall to the last door. He looked at Shelby, "Well, Miss. We need to get you downstairs and eat. What do you want?" She grinned up at him "'ancakes!" and wiggled to be let down.

Chuckling, he set her down on her feet and grasped her little hand before she could run down the hall to the stairs. "Hold it, sweetheart. Hold Daddy's hand, I don't want you to fall down the stairs. This ain't like our house." She nodded, her little curls bouncing around her head. They walked down the stairs and were heating up a couple of biscuits in the microwave when Alli came in from the back door.

She smiled when she saw them. "Hi Alli. I thought you were at the school." She made a face, setting her purse down on the counter.

"I was. But halfway there, the principal called and said the elementary school was shut down for today cause of the flu. I really hate flu season." He nodded, "Tell me about it. Last week Mikey stayed the night with us and the next morning, both him and Shelby had it." She smiled at the little girl making a mess of her biscuit, "You were sick, huh, baby?" She nodded, and said something unintelligible. She looked to Al for translation. "She said yes and she didn't like it." She laughed and poured fresh coffee in her travel cup, and nodded her head to the carafe, "Coffee?"

"Yeah if you have any left." He got up and poured milk in a sippy cup and chocolate syrup from the fridge. He took a spoon she offered him and handed the girl her milk and stirred a good amount of chocolate syrup into his coffee. She arched a brow at that; but she couldn't say much-Soda was known to still slap a glob of jelly on his eggs, whether they were fried or scrambled.

She sat at the table while they ate the biscuit and sausage she had left this morning. The little girl finished her biscuit and grinned at her with a sticky grin, "Gone!" She laughed at her expression while Al stood, popping his last bite in his mouth. "In that case, I guess you're ready for a bath then, huh?" he said as he took her out of the high chair.

She clapped, "Yea! Pool!" He chuckled and shook his head, "No, baby. No pool, bath time." He looked over at her, "Is it alright if I use your shower?" She shook her head, "Not at all. Towels are in the hall closet to the left of the stairs."

Twenty minutes later, him and Shelby were freshly showered, dressed and walking outside to the stables. Al finally let the little girl run as she had wanted since she woke up. She stopped just shy of hitting Soda's legs; he turned and smiled at the giggling little girl. She grinned shyly at him from around Al's legs. He shook his head and said to Soda, "She's a little shy around new people. By the end of the day you'll have to pry her off you." He laughed and grinned down at the little face half hidden by her daddy's pants leg. He knelt down in front of her and held out his hand, "Shelby, would you like to go see the horsies with me? I know Mickey Mouse would like to met you." She giggled and ran to his arms, "Horsies! Wana see horsies!" Both men laughed and he picked her up and walked into the stables.

A minute later, Al saw Alli, a man and another woman come up from the training area.

"Well, Alli the mare looks good. Seems healthy and well-fed, I'm sure she'll breed good with Andy." The older man turned to the smaller woman, he couldn't make anything out about her other than she had a long red braid poking out of her low-set hat. She looked like she would barely reach his shoulder if she was standing next to him, "Edie, what would you suggest we do about this new mare of Alli's?"

He couldn't hear her answer; her voice was so soft and low, no more than a whisper.

Alli caught sight of him when the group was a few feet away from him. She smiled and gestured to him, "Simon, want you to meet a new friend of ours. This is Al. Al meet our local veterinarian, Simon Caine. Al and his little girl are visiting for a few days." He shook hands; gratefully Alli didn't introduce him as Dallas Winston's son. He might look like the man, that didn't mean he wanted to be reminded of it.

"Pleasure to meet ya, Al. Oh, meet my assistant and soon-to-be Dr. Eden Adderson. She'll be one of the full-time doctors at our clinic this spring." She pulled her hat up where her face was visible and shook his outstretched hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you." The first thing he noticed was her hand was callused from hard work and labor. The second thing he noticed as he looked into her face was how young she looked; and how beautiful she was.

She had clear fair skin and brown eyes that held warmth and intelligence; her voice was soft and soothing. It was clear by her voice and general attitude she would be a good vet.

The moment was broken when a giggling came up behind her and she was shoved, pushing her off balance and into him. He caught her before she hit the ground, her smaller frame dwarfed by his. He pulled back and helped her back to her feet as he frowned down at the laughing little girl. "Shelby, what did I tell you about pushing people?" She pouted, "Not to?"

He nodded and picked her up, "Yes ma'am. You don't push people. Now tell Miss Eden you're sorry." The little girl turned to the petite woman standing next to him and pouted at her, "I sowwy."

She smiled up at her, "It's alright, sweetie and you can call me Edie. I used to do the same with my big brother; only I'd knock him down and tie him up with my jump rope." He laughed and shook his head, "God, don't give her any ideas! She tortures poor Mikey enough as it is."

She cocked her head to the side as she frowned up at him, "Is he your son?" He shook his head, "Naw, he's my nephew. He likes to come up to my house on the weekends. And Shelby likes to torture him the whole weekend."

She laughed and smiled at the little girl peeking out shyly behind her daddy's coat. "Is that so?"

She nodded and then she did something very unexpected; she held her arms out and reached out to her. She took her with a smile while Al took it all in with surprise. She grinned smugly at him, "What you didn't think she'd come to me?" He nodded, "No I didn't. Shelby doesn't like women to hold her. My family is the only ones she'll let hold besides me without making a fuss." Soda came up then, and smiled, "She seems pretty content to me." He nodded, she did. She had her head rested on Edie's shoulder and smiled contently up at her. She looked so sweet and innocent there he wanted to keep her like that always so he could keep her safe. He dreaded leaving at the end of the week and having to go up to Arkansas. Lila, Shelby's mother had finally been granted visitation rights and he had to bring her up to see her. The only thing he hated about it other than letting the woman near her, was that fact he was having to bring her to visit while Lila was in prison.

* * *

Later on that night, he was going over to Two-Bit's house for supper with Shelby in tow. Still thinking about the vet in training Edie. _Stop it_, he thought to himself. He didn't need another woman in his life, friend, lover, or anything. He had enough woman troubles, and one of them was currently cooing from her car seat as they pulled into Two-Bit's driveway. He was carrying Shelby into the house when he realized something. Two-Bit's truck wasn't parked in the driveway. He knocked on the door, thinking Lan would answer the door. Instead a younger version of Lan opened it. She grinned up at him and Shelby and gestured them inside, "Hi, you must be Al and this little cutie must be Shelby. I'm Sol, Jesse's sister." He looked around the crowded living room and saw most of the people he met yesterday was here. But he didn't see Two-Bit or any of the older guys. "Where's Two-Bit, he and Lan invited us over to supper." Annie shrugged from her position on the floor, "Mom reminded them all they promised to come to her seminar tonight at the college, so they all had to go. Can't figure out why she would want everybody to come to a boring seminar."

Maddie chuckled and nudged her with her foot, "Don't let Wendy hear you. She'll freak that she missed it. You know how much she loves to hear Aunt Wendy speak." The youngest Curtis girl rolled her eyes and went back to the sketch she was working on. Al seated himself in the floor and set Shelby on his lap as she looked shyly around the room when she spotted Ren sitting on the couch and got up and crawled into her lap. She smiled shyly at Jesse sitting next to her. He grinned at her, "Hey there, cutie." She giggled and ducked her head into Randi's shoulder. She laughed and drew the little face out of her shirt and looked at her, "Say Hi, Jesse." She giggled, "Sa' Hi Jessee." He laughed while Randi made a face at her and gestured to Jane, "You've been around your Aunt Jane too much. Your getting as smart-alecky as she is."

Jane rolled her eyes as she looked up from the cards she held. "I'll take that as a compliment." She laid her cards down on the coffee table, a stunned and bewildered Mike and Bri looked down at her hand then back at theirs. Mike sighed and threw his cards down, "I fold." "Me too."

Jane laughed gleefully and brought the chips to her. Sam laughed and shook her head, "I told you guys not to play poker with Jane. How do you think she paid for college? She fleeced the girls in our dorm on a regular basis." She grinned up at her, "Yep. Which reminds me Winston, you still owe me from our last game." Sam shook her head, "I don't think so, Cade. I paid you up in full. And I will never watch Mikey and his Boy Scout troop again. You could have told me that they don't do well with sugar."

She gave her a wide-eyed innocent look, "Gee, they didn't? Wow, who'd a thought giving a warehouse size bag of candy would be bad for seven-year-olds?" The whole room laughed at that. Randi shook her head, and looked down at Shelby, "Remind me not to let aunt Sam sit for me, sweetie." Sam made a face at her, "Just for that, I'll be feeding that baby chocolate milk my first opportunity!" She mimicked her and smirked at her, "I'll remember that when you get preggers, Sammie. Payback will be a bi-" She broke off and looked down at the baby in her arms- "Well, it'll be something I can't say around little ears. Just remember." Sam made a face at her making Ben laugh at her.

That was when Al remembered he was supposed to bring something that came for Randi. He took a peek at it already and wasn't all that surprised. But he wondered how she'd feel about seeing it right now. He withdrew a manila envelope from the diaper bag and caught Randi's attention, trying to keep the grin off his face,

"Oh, Ren. I just remembered, the calendars came out the day before I came here and I brought your copy from your apartment you got the other day."

Her eyes got big and she gulped. She knew what he was talking about even though everyone else was looking at him like he was crazy. She set the baby down on the couch behind her and tried to snatch the dangling paper out of his hands, but no success. It royally stunk when you were five-ten and still couldn't get something. Like a calendar from your freakishly tall brother.

"Al, don't. Give it here."

He still had it out of her reach when Jesse snatched it out of his hands and grinned at her as she tried to get out of his hands now.

"Ooh, what is it? Are you naked in here?" She shook her head vehemently, "No. It's just a calendar of Savannah officers. All the proceeds are suppose to go to police families that lost a family member during the line of duty." She shrugged her shoulders nonchantly, "No big deal."

Patti stood up on the couch to peek over looked over Jesse's shoulder, "If it's no big deal, how come you're acting like he's holding national secrets?" Then the girl frowned when she saw the photographer's name. "Ain't she the photographer that does those provocative photos in magazines?" Jesse grinned and opened it up, "Well let's just see, shall we? What month is she, Al?"

"Miss June. Aunt Brooke said that was the best picture she had seen taken of you outside of your baby pictures."

She growled and tried to get the calendar from Jesse once more when he stopped at June. His jaw dropped practically onto his chest and Patti's eyes widened and whistled.

"Wow."

She went to the other side of Jesse and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the picture. Good, it was one of the more tamer pictures taken of her. She would die if he saw one of the ones where she wore nothing more than a leather mini and her motorcycle jacket.

* * *

Jesse felt his body go from hot to cold, then to hot again. Patti was right, this was provocative; and the most skin shown was up top. The rest of her was covered in skintight black leather pants and spiked heel boots.

The most skin showing was her ample cleavage threatening to spill out of a black laced up leather halter. A strip of pale skin peeked out of where her top and pants didn't meet. She sat on the back of a black and chrome Harley that looked very much like the one he sold a couple of years ago. One leg was propped up on the handle bars, showcasing the black boots and tight pants hugging her curves. In her hands was a sniper rifle, the way she held it made him wish it was him in her grasp instead of cold metal.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Patti say something. _"As Miss June we have former SWAT member and Missing Persons Detective Randi Lewis. The Louisiana native is not only one of Savannah's finest, but a real biker chick in her down-time. But don't let her stunning Southern Belle good looks fool you boys. She has a high IQ and is more than capable of firing her rifle. I know I wouldn't mind being in her line of fire!"_

Patti laughed and smiled, "Wow, Randi. This guy was very good to you." To Jesse's delight, she blushed at the teen's praises.

Jesse recovered and cleared his throat and gave a strained grin, "Let's see who else is here. I'll never look at a traffic cop the same if there's one in here."

He flipped threw it a couple of more pages when he came across September. She was a very familiar face. He looked around the room and spotted her and chuckled. "Sam. I'm surprised with you. I didn't know you were the type to play cops and robbers." Her eyes went as big as saucers and leaped to him only to have Ben intercept her and took it out of his hands. "Well, well. This I have to see."

He slapped it open and it opened it to September. And nearly swallowed his tongue. He didn't know what was sexier; Sam au naturel or this siren staring back at him with a sultry expression on her face.

She had on a barely there black miniskirt and crop top with tiny sleeves, a real Savannah police badge was pinned to the shirt, the shirt was so low-cut if she took too deep a breath she would have been exposed. And he wouldn't have minded it one bit. She had her back resting against a brick wall while one of her long high-heeled legs propped on the hood of a police cruiser. A gleaming 9mm rested in her upraised hand and a police hat rested on her loose, flowing hair. He read the facts section out loud; it was set up almost like those magazines he used to hid under his bed as a kid. Only Sam wasn't showing nearly as much skin as the girls did in those old magazines.

He cleared his throat, _"Miss September is former Homicide detective Samantha Winston. This New-York native is a proud adopted Savannahian and is often seen around town helping out with troubled teens. But don't let that kind heart and blonde bombshell looks fool you. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture and is more than capable of using the gun she holds. She was the best shot in her class at the academy. I wouldn't mind being frisked by her."_ Sam laughed and blushed at the commentary, but if she could get that look on Ben's face all the time; she just might brave her shyness and buy that costume just to see his expression. At the time she had done it to help with the Policemens fund. Now she was glad she did it for a whole other reason.

She took it out of his hands and thumbed threw it and came across a few she recognized. One surprised her, "Hey girls, you won't believe who is in here as Miss March. Sara from the CSU!" Jane got up from her seat and stood on the other side of Sam and smiled down at the picture of a familiar face. "Uh, I didn't think she had it in her. Who else is in here?" She thumbed threw it when she stopped at one. Jane looked wide-eyed at Sam and Randi and hastily shut the cover. But her relief didn't last long. A male voice came up behind her and took it out of her hands, "Let's see what Naughty Jane has been hiding from us." Pete opened it up and saw the page she didn't want him to see. His face was expressionless as he saw who was Miss February. But when his eyes gazed into hers, the heat in those stormy eyes nearly scorched her.

* * *

Jane was naked. No. Scratch that; she was almost naked. She laid on her side on a never-ending sea of crimson silk. Her hand clutched another length of red silk to her chest, playing peek-a-boo with her curves. A flash of surprising long leg showed. The copper of her skin was more prominent than normal with the red silk against her skin. Her exposed leg was smooth and long, showing a hint of muscle; a knife sheath was strapped to her thigh, the red handle peeking out from the silk. He cleared his throat and read the information out loud_. "What better way to celebrate such a romantic month than this stunning copper beauty. Part Cherokee Lieutenant Jane Cade of Missing Persons is more than meets the eye. While she may look delicate, you couldn't be further from the truth with the leading Savannah Martial Arts expert. This Brooklyn-bred Southern girl is a genuine giver; spending her free-time with her foster child and volunteering at the local Y teaching karate to the youngsters. I wouldn't mind being at the end of her knife if it got me a date." _

She flushed, but laughed at the last comment. "I might be flattered, if the writer wasn't gay and happy with his current squeeze. Let me see this, I don't know why he said I was part Cherokee. I'm less than a quarter Cherokee."

She thumbed threw it for a few minutes before she shut it and looked over at a sheepish-looking Al. "How did the benefit go?" He grinned, "It went great; they said they tripled what they brought it last year once they saw these calendars were being sold to anyone who was at the benefit. And anyone who donated over a hundred dollars would get a first edition of the new book the photographer was putting out of her work." All three women looked stunned his admission. "Wow. They sold that well?" He nodded and grinned devilishly, "I guess it was allure of seeing a bunch of female detectives in barely there clothes that sold the idea for them." Sam rolled her eyes and playfully slapped his arm, "Just cause you're a hound doesn't mean all men like pinup calendars for the pictures." The guys around the room looked up and laughed, "Wrong!"

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_Thank you for your reviews and I'm so sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. You name it and it has come up at my house!_


	24. Chapter 24

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively._

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Chapter Twenty-Two

Edie pulled up into her parent's driveway later that night, exhausted. Simon had been working her to the bone ever since she started her internship at the clinic. She knew she was singled out by the differences in how he treated the other intern.

She didn't know if it was because she was a woman or she happened to have the bad luck of being born on the wrong side of the tracks.

The side were everyone had plasma TVs in every room and the girls carried thousand dollar Gucci handbags.

She sighed and opened her truck door and dragged her book bag from the passenger seat. "Just tough it out, Edie. Just finish your internship and get your degree and you can show the smug bastard your a lot more than a trust fund baby," she muttered to herself as she walked up the path to the front door. When she opened it the warm scents greeting her instantly relaxed her. She smiled as she tossed her bag on the chair beside the door and shut it behind her. Her mother was making her famous turkey stew, and today she needed it. She walked into the kitchen and saw her mother standing over the stove, stirring a large pot. "Hey, Mom. How is your day been?"

She looked up from the pot she was stirring and smiled at her, "Good. But judging by your expression you have had rough day."

She groaned, reaching into the fridge for a beer. She grabbed the bottle opener and popped the cap off into the sink, taking a long gulp of it. She arched a brow, "That bad, huh? It must be, since you don't drink." Her gaze sharpened on her face, "Unless you've done it before and never told me." Edie shook her head, taking a seat at the bar, "Mom, please. Don't. I've had one person jump down my throat; I don't need or want another person to join him."

She pursed her lips, "Simon, again? Honey, why don't you tell the jackass to shove it and take that internship at the clinic in Windrixville?" She shook her head, "I can't. It'll kill my veterinarian career before it even starts. Besides, he's one of the best vets in the county. It would be a real boon to work under him both as an intern and as a vet. I'm just gonna have to tough it out."

Her mother nodded her head sympathetically as she brought two steaming bowls of stew to the bar and got out a beer for herself. Edie looked at the place setting, "Dad working late again?" She nodded as she sat down next to her, "Yeah, they say a doctor's work is never done, so is a social worker's. He has to finish his report from a big case before tomorrow so he's pulling an all-nighter." She nodded, it was commonplace for her dad to work all day and all night pushing paper. She paused in taking a bite of her food and looked over at her mother. "Mom, do you ever regret dad quitting his executive job to become a social worker?" Cherry smiled at her over her spoon, "No honey, I don't. He's happier now than I ever saw him as corporate suit."

Later that night Edie sat up in her room, pouring over her books for her upcoming exam. If she passed this one, she could graduate early. She would be the first veterinarian in her family, both on the Valence and Adderson sides. But tonight those thoughts didn't motivate her like they normally did on rough days like today. Her mind was else were, and despite her determination to read and memorize the contents in the chapter that night, she couldn't. Her mind kept wondering back to meeting a green-eyed man today, and the electric shock that went threw her at the first touch of his hand grasping hers. She told herself to forget about him; he was leaving in a few days anyhow and would forget about her sleepy little town before the sign was out of his view. Then there was the adorable little girl of his. Edie promised a long time ago she would never get mixed up with a man with a child.

Friend or otherwise.

* * *

It was a couple of days before Al and Shelby was due to go up to Arkansas when Al got a invitation he would love to decline. His paternal grandmother invited him and Shelby over to lunch that day. He had refused the last several times she invited him over, but today he couldn't. Word got back to Sam and Jane and they went medieval on him for it, Sam threatened to beat the hell out of him if he didn't go. Jane didn't threaten to beat him- she threatened to make him into a eunuch if he didn't go.

So here he stood on Ingrid's front porch. Not that the threat of being gelded didn't help motivate him coming here; it was the conversation Jane gave him later that night when it was just them. She was the last surviving member of her dad's family. She found out she had a aunt that died when she was a little older than Mikey and her grandparents died when she was a teenager; a lot of questions she had about her paternal family was lost now. She told him if he didn't give a damn about finding out about his roots, then give a damn for Shelby while he still had someone to answer his questions_. "Shelby deserves to know where she comes from one day,_" she said.

"She always knows were to hit a man where it hurts," he muttered to himself. He cleared his throat and knocked on the door.

Ingrid opened the door and nearly rocked back on her heels. She gasped at the man standing on the porch. "You-you look just like-" He nodded jerkily, a air of hostility pouring off him. "Yeah, I know. I look like Dallas." She shook her head, "No. I mean, you do look like him. But you're the very image of Alex when he was your age." Some of the hostility softened from his features. He nodded, and held his hand out. "I'm Al." He pointed to a shy little face peeking out from his pants leg. "This here is Shelby." She knelt down, and smiled at her. "Hi, Shelby. I'm Granny Ingrid. Would you like to come in and have some cake with me?" Like a Christmas tree, her little face lit up at the mention of cake and came out from behind her daddy's leg and took her offered hand, she looked back at her daddy and he smiled back at her as Ingrid led them into her home.

* * *

It was just after sunrise when Al was packing his Suburban to leave. He saw some of the gang was there and so were some of the older kids that were off to work had stopped to say goodbye. The guys had all given him their cell numbers and told him they were always there to talk. He had slipped them in his coat pocket to keep, but wasn't all that sure he would take any of them up on their offer. But there was one number he planned to call once he got back to Savannah. On a slip of paper that had a vet clinic logo, was a number he was very interest in talking to. With a final wave and a promise to call his sisters he pulled out of the DX and started down the road to the highway.

It was just after noon when Al pulled into the motel he booked ahead of time. After he set their bags in the room, he was back in the SUV and driving the hour long drive to Arkansas Womens Penitentiary.

Al pulled up to the prison and got out, hesitant to take Shelby even out of the car at the sight of the armed guards in the tower and around the fence. He was standing at the back door when he saw the last person he wanted to see. He let out a low growl at the sight of Lila's attorney coming her way to him. She was a tall black-haired woman around his mother's age, but had none of the warmth and compassion in her face and eyes as Kate Miller did.

Michelle Drake was the Savannah ADA's worst nightmare. She was one of the best lawyers for the rich and privileged and always managed to get her clients out of any legal scrape.

Except this time.

Lila had been charged with child endangerment as well abandonment, while she might would have gotten probation, what made the jury find her guilty was she didn't seem to care for the child or the fact she left her literally on the doorstep of a near stranger's house.

Lila most likely wouldn't be getting out of prison till Shelby was a teenager.

She smiled smugly at Al as she stopped in front of him. "Dallas, I see you're a minute late. You know what the papers say; one o'clock and not a minute later."

He cocked a brow at her, "I was here early actually. The sight of all this," gesturing around them, "Made me leery of getting my daughter out of the car. Wouldn't you?"

To his surprise, her face softened and she nodded, "Yes, Dallas it would. This is no place for a child."

Then her face hardened back into its usual cold, smug mask. "And neither does my client. She's a mentally unstable woman that belongs in a mental hospital where she can get help. Or better yet, home where she can receive help and know her family is with her." He reached in the back and unstrapped Shelby and plucked her out of her car seat. He glared coldly at the woman as he adjusted the toddler's coat as a sharp wind blew threw the parking lot.

"Neither did my daughter deserve to be left on my door step in the middle of winter for nearly two hours. She should be glad they didn't give her life without parole for that alone." He slammed the back door shut and started up the walk to the doors. "Let's get this over with. The less time she's around her, the better my daughter will be."

After he signed in at the front, a man about his size and age led them back to the visitation rooms with heavy thick glass on the doors. They stopped at the last door of the long corridor and the guard unlocked it and opened the heavy metal door. He nodded to him and walked into the room. A petite blonde-haired blue-eyed woman sat at the table already. It was Lila.

The guard nodded to him bit watched Lila the whole time he talked, "I'll be just outside the door." Then he shut the door, leaving them in semi-privacy. He set Shelby down in the chair next to him as Lila looked them over. When she spoke her voice was thick with emotion, "She's gotten so big since I last saw her." She held out her arms and smiled down at her, "Come to Mama, sweetie." She pushed her head into Al's side, peeking out at her once then burrowed back into Al's side. Lila looked like she had been slapped, Al just shrugged and said, "She's shy around strangers. And she doesn't like strange women." Al felt a unwanted twinge of sympathy as he saw Lila's face crumble at those words.

"Why doesn't she know me? All babies know their mamas." He picked her up and set her down in the floor were a couple of toys had been laid out for their visit. He looked back at her "That's because she doesn't really know you, Lila. She was eight weeks old the last time she saw you. "

_And if I had my way, she wouldn't ever have to see you again. _

* * *

It was the night that Al came back home and Val couldn't sleep after what she discussed with her nephew that night before he went to his cabin on the property.

She looked out at the lightening sky and sighed. She finally admitted defeat and threw the covers back and threw on her sweats and went for a run around the property. It was something she missed about Jane moving away, running every morning with her. It had been something they had done since they moved back to Savannah. Now she missed it more than anything. She was breathing hard when she came back to the house and pulled up short when she saw two figures sitting on the large wraparound porch.

She continued to walk up to the house and immediately wanted to turn around and go back for another run. Brooke and Kate were sitting on the porch steps. Both were already dressed for work and drinking coffee. Kate handed her a cup sitting beside her and scouted down to make room for her on the steps. Val took a grateful sip of the warm liquid as it warmed her up. She was halfway done with the cup when Kate broke the peaceful silence.

"What's going on, Val?" She looked back up at her twin and shrugged nonchantantly, "What makes you sure something going on?"

Brooke nudged her shoulder, "We know you Val. You look like you didn't sleep a wink last night and you went for a run you hadn't done in nearly three months. Something's going on."

"We know it can't be Mikey; he hasn't been in trouble with the teacher since he put that frog in that little girl's backpack. Is it Jane?"

She sighed and shook her head, then she got up and walked into the house, knowing they would follow. A minute later she heard footsteps follow her to the living room they kept separate from the rest of the ground floor. She went over to the folder sitting on the coffee table and took something out of it. She gestured for them to sit down on the couch as she sat on the ottoman across from them. She looked at them with such sadness they both could actually feel it like a pain in their heart. She handed it to Kate, "Read this, Katie. It explains so much about Johnny now that I have all the facts."

She picked the sheet up and saw it was a copy of a old newspaper. It was dated over thirty years ago. She cleared her throat and read it out loud,

"_Local Child Killed in a Hit-And Run." _Kate and Brooke looked up at her then back at the article. Kate continued to read, reeling at what she saw.

"_Police found the body of a young girl on the side of a empty road early yesterday morning. She has been identified as Amy Cade by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cade. Her parents called the police late last night when their daughter, who was riding her bike home from a friend's, wasn't home yet. Due to the law of twenty-four wait, the young girl couldn't be listed as a Missing Person till this morning. She was found three hours after she was listed as Missing. The coroner has identified her cause of death as a broken neck. The driver was found at his home late last night and has been arrested. The driver has been identified as James Sheldon, son of Robert and Polly Sheldon. _

_He was under the influence of a substance while driving his vehicle and wasn't aware he had struck the girl till the police came to his door to charge him. Because Mr. Sheldon is nineteen, he will be tried as a adult for the vehical manslaughter of Amy Cade and his hearing will take place later this month. Witnesses say the girl's parents were devastated when they heard the news. This reporter saw her father had to be physically restrained to keep from harming Sheldon as he was led into the courthouse for his arraignment. _

_And quite possibly the saddest of the losing of this young life, was when this reporter saw the girl's mother had to hold back a screaming boy as they carried her body away to the coroner, the boy was the victim's younger brother. Her funeral will take place at the end of the week at the Tulsa Memorial Cemetery." _

Kate and Brooke looked at her, tears shining in their eyes. Kate sat the paper down and walked around the table to where Val sat and took her in her arms. She cried into her chest, "Why didn't he tell me? We shared everything. Everything. I told him things that no one else knew. Why didn't he tell me he had a sister?"

Kate smoothed the hair back from her face while Brooke rubbed her arm, "Val, honey it might have been too hard for him to talk about. I know it would be for me." Kate laid her cheek on top of her head and held her close, "Sweetie, that's probably when it all started. That's probably when all hell broke loose, Val. He didn't want to relieve the good days so he didn't talk about it."

She looked up at them both with tears running down her face. "It makes sense now that I know all the facts. I mean it was there, I just didn't see it.

Why he wouldn't drink when we went to a party, why he freaked the first time I ever mentioned the idea of kids to him." She choked back a sob, "Why he always looked at us together like it broke his heart. He missed his sister too, Katie. And I couldn't help him threw it."

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and patience. Also, does anyone know who to contact if you have trouble with downloading new documents? Cause it took forever to get this chapter to download without something messing up._


	25. Chapter 25

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively._

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jane was in her car heading out to Pony's place, thinking about all that had happened in the last few days, especially Randi's _little_ confession. She'd known somewhere in the back of her mind about Randi. About her father.

But she had never let herself look too closely at that logic, because she knew she would react like she did. That night after Randi confessed about her father hitting her, she came over to the apartment later that night and told her and Sam the whole truth. About him beating Brooke, about everything. Jane had been so full of rage it had taken a solid hour of hitting the gym and running before she cooled down. Sam had been there right with her, running out the rage that had them both wishing the man was still alive for them to get a hold of him.

She shook the thoughts away and got out of the car and out into the February air. She saw Wendy scraping ice off her car windshield as she went up the walk. She smiled at her and gestured inside, "Pone's inside. A little warning though; he's experiencing a little writer's block right now with his latest book, so don't surprise if he's a little testy."

She chuckled and nodded at her warning. Brooke did the same thing, only she would sit in front of the TV and eat a pint of her favorite chocolate ice cream and bemoan how she was a terrible writer.

She walked into the house and saw Pony sitting at the kitchen table with a coffee cup between his hands, staring off into space. She smiled and sat down beside him, "Hi Pony."

He didn't answer; she snapped her fingers in front of him and shook him out of his daydream. He looked at her puzzled, "Jane, when did you get here?"

She smiled, "I just got here. How's the latest story going?" He shook his head and took a swallow of coffee, "I've hit a roadblock." He held up his hand and got up, "Oh, while I've got it on my mind, let me give you this. I'll be back in a sec."

He went upstairs to his office. She looked around the room while he went to get whatever it was. Her mind drifted off to other things and didn't hear him come back down til he tapped her on the shoulder; she started and looked up into his grinning face. He shook his head at her, "Your as bad as your daddy was. Everybody said I drifted off to another world, but he was just as bad if not worse than me!" She laughed and raised her hand, "Guilty. It used to drive Mom crazy when she would lecture me and I would drift off to the Bahamas." He shook his head and set a covered box in front of her. She pushed the cover back to reveal a rusted metal box about the size of a shoe box. She looked up at him, "Shoes? Pony you shouldn't have."

He chuckled; Sam wasn't lying about her having a smart mouth. "No. You remember me saying I met Wendy when she and her sister moved into Johnny's old house?" She nodded. "Well, her sister sold the house a few years ago to the new owners and they were digging up the backyard when they found this," he tapped the box, "Wendy said it must have been from when Johnny lived there. She and her sister were the only people that lived there after his parents left. She said neither of them buried a box on the property."

She smiled up at him gratefully and ran her hands over the lid with a new respect. She dusted off the top and saw it was a old lock box, he looked down at her, "I wonder what he hid in here."

She grinned playfully up at him, "Well, considering he might have buried this when he was still a little kid, we're liable to find a dead bug or something like that." He laughed, "We didn't all do that." She arched a brow, "Trust me, you do. I have one back home, it wouldn't surprise me if Mikey had boxes buried all around the property with dead bugs and baby teeth and other little boy things somewhere."

He smiled at that, it was still odd to hear Jane had a foster child; it just made him realize all the more he was getting older when his best friend's daughter had a kid of her own.

She jiggled the lock, but showed no sign of budging. He leaned over and took his pocket knife out and jimmied the lock open. She gingerly opened the rusted top and peered inside.

The first thing she saw was a leather pouch and below it was a large envelope. She picked up the leather pouch and opened the ties and dumped it upside down in her palm. A gold band and old-fashioned gold watch came out and into her palm and onto the table. She looked up at Pony and saw he wore an equally puzzled look on his face. She held up the watch and saw it was still in good shape for something to be underground for countless years.

Next she held up the ring. It looked to be a man's ring. She handed the pieces over to Pony. "Did my dad ever have a watch?" He shook his head. "Naw, a greaser didn't have something this nice-looking for long back then. This looks like a expensive watch." He held up the ring, "I wonder where he got this ring; it looks like a man's wedding band. This stuff might have been his dad's or granddad's."

"Maybe." She shrugged as she picked up the paper envelope from the bottom of the box, it was brittle and black with age.

He was still looking the ring and watch over in his hands, trying to remember if he ever saw them when heard her gasp. His head jerked up and his gaze went to her white face. She looked like she would keel over right in front of him, "Jane, are you alright?" She looked wide-eyed down at the envelope then up at him. "P-pony, where did you and Dad get the idea to go to the church in Windrixville?"

He frowned at her behavior, "Dally. He said he had a cousin up there that's how he knew about the place." She shook her head, "I don't think so. Take a look at the back of this picture." She handed it to him with a shaky hand; he had a bad feeling about it before he ever looked at the back. On the back was written in an unfamiliar feminine handwriting, _"Baptist Church of Windrixville, November 20, 1980."_

He flipped it over and saw why Jane started shaking, he felt himself start to shake when he saw the black and white picture. Johnny was in a old 50s suit and was grinning big at the camera. On his arm was a equally grinning Val in a long white dress that looked like it was from the 40s, she had a long white cape over it. But what drew his attention the most was their hands.

Johnny had on a ring on his left hand just like what they found in the box, Val had one too if the glitter of something on her hand was any indication. Jane showed him more of the pictures she found and shook her head, "If this is what I think it is, Pony; this changes a lot of things. Do you have a web cam?" He nodded absently as he looked down at the picture; she stood up and took her phone out of her jacket pocket. "I'm calling Mom and ask her to get on the web cam. I got some questions for her to answer."

* * *

Jane was shaking as she typed in her mother's email address and waited for it to boot up. There she followed the link that brought the web cam up. Her mother's anxious face came into view on the computer screen. "Jane what's wrong? You should like you were upset on the phone."

_You don't know the half of it, woman._

She shook her head slowly, "No, Mom. I'm fine. So are Sam and Randi. But I really need to talk to you." She gave her a puzzled look, "About what, sweetheart?"

"About this."

Pony came up behind her and set the box down in front of the computer. Val looked at him with wide eyes.

"Ponyboy? Is that you?" He nodded, his stern look fading at her bewildered question, "Yeah. Hi, Val. You look good."

She nodded dazed, "You grew up. I knew you did, but its-its just odd seeing you grown after remembering you as a kid all these years." He nodded in agreement, "Likewise." Time had been good to Valerie Miller, she had her brown hair pulled back from a attractive face that didn't look a day older than Jane's.

Jane brought her mother's attention back to her, "Mom. Mom, the people that moved into Dad's old house found this box earlier in the week when they started digging up the yard. We-we found some interesting things in it. One of them was this." She held up the picture they found.

"And this", she held up the watch, "I recognize the watch now that I took a good look at it." She looked at her mother's pale face. "This is Great-Grandpa Dimitri's watch. You said Gramma Gina gave this to him on the day after she had Granddad. Why would Dad have his watch, Mom?" She started to speak, but she interrupted, "And before you think about lying, remember all those stories you and Aunt Kate told us about the family." She held up the picture back up for her to see.

"I recognize the dress too. And the story behind it. You remember it, Mom? It's Gina's wedding dress. You told me they met during World War II when she was a Army nurse and he was a Russian Navy officer. They met and fell in love and decided to get married a week after Allies retook one of the countries in Europe. You said they started not to get married because she didn't have a dress and none of the shops or officers' wives would sell or loan her anything because she was Indian."

"Except a kind English officer's wife. She loaned her the dress and her cape since it was winter over there, and when she started to give her the clothes back she told her to keep them and remember that day."

By the time Jane laid it out for her, Val had tears running down her face. She nodded, "Alright. It's true, your dad and me were married, but not legally. We were sixteen and we just had Gram giving her blessing, Johnny asked me and I said yes. We got married in secret at Windrixville; it was at Gram's old church." Jane looked at the screen, slack-jawed. Pony wasn't much better.

"Who all knew, Mom? From what I heard about the Cades, they wouldn't have giving their blessing." She nodded, wiping the tears away, "Kate and Dally, knew. And you're right, they forbade him to see me. But we kept seeing in secret, we wanted to tell everyone, but we were afraid his parents would do something drastic.

We were married nearly a month when I thought I might be pregnant." She frowned at her, "But Mom, if you were married and pregnant with me, even if Gina died, you didn't have to run away." She shook her head. "I lied, honey. We didn't run because me and Kate was afraid they would take you kids away from us. It was because you were in danger."

She looked at her in shock, then looked back at a silent Pony. "What are you talking about, Mom?" She took a shuddering breath before continuing, "It was because you were in danger. I didn't tell anyone but Kate that I thought I might be pregnant. But Gram somehow knew and went to the Cades and told them they needed to give their blessing so we could get married proper. She told them us getting secretly married, about me being pregnant."

She looked at her with agony in her eyes, "Three days later, Kate and me came home from work to find Gram, dead. But she didn't die of a stroke like we told you kids, she was really murdered."

Jane went pale, "What?!"

She nodded, "We didn't have proof, but we knew Johnny's dad had something to do with it. I knew we were next. That's the real reason why we ran, Jane. I ran away to keep you safe."

* * *

Jane said her goodbyes to her mother and then Pony. She was driving back to the city and made a radical decision. She stopped in front a apartment building and got out of her car and walked up to the second floor.

Pete had just got out of the shower when he heard a knock at the door. He wrapped a towel around his waist and went to answer. To his surprise, Jane came barraging in. "I need to talk to you." She turned around and looked at him, the annoyed look faded to a flushed one. "After you get dressed." He shook his head. "Well since I sleep in the nude and I'm going to bed, I let you know when I'm dressed in about twelve hours." She shrugged, "Fine, I'll just follow you and rant while you dress." He gave her a annoyed look, "Just what's the matter? Don't you normally talk to Sam or Randi when something's bugging you?" She sighed and sat down on the bed while he pulled on a pair of boxers. He threw the wet towel off and tossed it in a hamper beside the door, leaving him in just boxers. And he looked good in them; all those years of martial arts gave him a body that would have made football player jealous. He cleared his throat, bringing her back. She ignored his smug look and spoke, "I normally do, but Sam's off with Ben playing Navy and Randi's off playing house with Jesse."

He snorted, "So as your unofficial boyfriend, I'm last in line. Hmm?"

She sighed and shook her head, "No, Pete. I'm fixing to tell you something that is so big, it's something I normally go straight to one of my sisters to talk it out. And I told you why I don't won't to make our relationship public."

He shook his head, "I know. A crazy from a old case tried to kill a guy you were seeing at the time back in Savannah, so after that you tried to keep you love life as private as possible. But Jane, that's then, not now."

She gave him a stubborn look, "Once bitten, twice shy. I won't let some lunatic from my work hurt you, Pete; because you happen to be seeing me."

She sighed, "Are you going to listen to what I have to say now or am I going to have to leave?"

He shook his head and gave her annoyed look, "Just tell me, Jane. I'm operating on pure caffeine after a twelve hour shift and had a chatty-Cathy partner instead of my normally quiet one; I need sleep."

She let out a deep breath, "My parents were married and a month after they married my mom and aunt had to run because our Great-Grandmother was murdered and was told we were next." Her words tumbled out so fast he didn't catch it all at first, but after he absorbed all what she said, he stood up and went down the hall. "Where are you going?" His words floated back to her, "Making coffee, I have a feeling it's going to be a long day."

* * *

It was an hour before Tim was closing up the shop and he was checking inventory in the back when the front door slammed open.

"Shepard, were are you? We've got to talk!"

For one moment he was brought back to when he was a kid and Dal was coming to 'talk' about him getting fresh with Sylvia. He walked out to the front and was confronted by a very angry Sam. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her eyes blazed ice blue fire at him, but when she spoke her voice was eerily calm, "Tim, in the last month I've actively talked to you about my dad, I think you forgot a couple of things." He frowned at her, "What things?"

"Like the fact my Aunt Val and Johnny were married."

His jaw dropped at that, but before he could say anything she started up again, "And lets see, oh Gramma Gina was murdered. Not dead of a stroke, but murdered!" He shook his head, "I thought you knew about Gina, it was the reason why they ran. And I for damn sure didn't know Val and John got married." She took a deep breath and began to calm down.

"Jane told me when I got home, what she found out. Uncle John asked her to marry him, she said yes. Mom called me about an hour ago and told me everything. Gina took them and Mom and Dad up to Windrixville to get married. She was from there originally and knew the preacher wouldn't ask any questions. So they had a secret wedding, and kept it a secret from everybody till they could convince his parents to give their blessing. A month later Aunt Val found out she was pregnant, but before she could tell Johnny, they found Gina murdered." He shook his head, "Wait, I'm confused. Did Dal and Kate get married too or were they witnesses?"

"Witnesses."

"Mom and Aunt Val stayed hidden til they could run, then they hightailed it up to New York." She sighed, running a hand threw her loose hair, "Look, I talked with Mom and Aunt Val and Jane. They said they would be up late tonight if all you guys wanted to talk with them and get the whole story. Come by our place if you want to hear it."

* * *

An hour later all of the guys and Jane, Sam were sitting around a laptop Sam brought and waited for the webcam to come up. Randi had declared this was strictly Cade and Winston family business and went to stay the night on Jesse's couch. She said she would hear about it tomorrow after she came back from the doctor's office. The blank screen went fuzzy then a background slowly came into view. Two identical faces came into view as the room came into view that they both recognized as the family office. Val and Kate sat side by side one another, looking back at them. Several of the guys murmured at the sight of the twins they hadn't seen since the night Gina had been murdered. Both gave nervous smiles, "Hi, guys," they said in union.

They nodded back to them, while Sam and Jane soaked up seeing them almost face-to face for the first time in two months. Val smiled back at Jane, "Mikey told me to tell you night before he went up to bed." She nodded, wishing she could see him. This was the longest she had been parted from the seven year old in the four years he had been her foster son. Her thoughts were interrupted by Sam nudging her and she turned her attention to the computer screen.

Val took a deep breath and started talking, "You all probably know the reason why were all here, so I won't beat around the bush." Darry smiled at her choice of words; her ability to be straightforward hadn't changed over the years.

She held up her left hand, showing a wedding band on her fourth finger. "This was my Mom's wedding band. I gave Johnny Daddy's wedding band and Grandpa Dimitri's gold watch as a wedding gift." She gestured to Jane, "You're wearing what he gave me, Janie."

She frowned as she pulled the simple gold locket out from under her shirt. Val had told her it was a gift from her father to her mother. She had assumed it was a Christmas or birthday gift. She had no idea it was a wedding present. Pony gasped when he saw the locket in her hand. "That's Amy's locket."

Val looked at him in surprise, "Johnny gave it to me on our wedding day. I assumed it was something he bought or was from his mom's jewelry box. Lord knows she wouldn't have missed it."

Pony shook his head, "It's Amy's. I know because I went with him and his dad to get it for her for her 10th birthday. Johnny saved for months to buy her it." Jane held the locket with a new respect and reverence. Here was a link not only to her father, but the aunt she never got to meet. She looked up at the screen, "You said you ran because I was in danger. Why?"

Her mother was silent for a long moment before she spoke, and when she did her voice was thick with emotion, "Because the man that killed Gina, was going to come after us next. And Kate, if she got in the way." They all looked at one another in shock, Soda leaned forward, "Who?" She looked at them with sad eyes. "Johnny's father." She took a deep breath and held up her hand to still the comments, "I'm going to tell you what happened. About finding Gina, the person that helped us get out of Oklahoma. But listen closely, cause we're only gonna tell this once." They looked at one another and took a deep breath and began the story of what happened that night all those years ago…

_Val opened the back door, turning back to Kate, "Kate, I don't know whether to hug you or declare you insane!" She just laughed, "Hey, I'm sure Johnny will appreciate me looking out for his woman while a bunch of horny teenage boys try to get her number and in her uniform." She rolled her eyes._

"_And I'm not the one that dumped a whole pitcher of ice tea on that soc's lap!" She laughed and smiled back at her, "Yeah, there'll be hell to pay on Monday in Biology, Randy didn't like me then and he for sure won't now!" Kate opened her mouth when a odd smell greeted her as she walked from the kitchen to the hallway. "Val, do you smell that?"_

_She turned to her twin when she went pale and ran down the hall, "Gram!" _

"_Gram!" _

_Kate hurried after her, "Val, what's wrong?" Then she realized what it was: Gram was always near the door when they came home. Either she would find a excuse to be in the kitchen near the back door or the living room. She wasn't there and would have come if she heard them. Something was wrong._

"_Gram? Gram, where are you?"_

"_Val, I'll check her room and ours. You check the living room." She nodded and headed off in the direction of the living room while Kate checked the bedrooms. She gasped when she saw her and Val's room. It was in shambles. She hurried over to Gram's and saw it was in equal state, but no Gram. She walked in and saw the pictures that sat along her vanity were smashed. She treaded carefully on the glass-strewn carpet over to the vanity and picked up a frame and saw to her sadness, it was the last picture of their parents before they died. _

_Then she heard Val scream. _

"_Gram! Oh God, no!" _

_She hurried down the hall and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what Val screamed at. _

_She felt her stomach lurch, "Oh God."_

_Gram laid in the middle of floor, unmoving. Blood all around her. The picture in Kate's hand fell from her suddenly nerveless fingers. Val was kneeling beside her, holding her head in her lap, her face wet with tears, her eyes dark with pain and disbelief. _

_She knelt on the other side of Gram, pressing her hands to her neck. There was no pulse. Tears ran down her face without her knowing it. _

_She was still and pale, her eyes closed and her vibrancy gone. Val looked up at her, shock and grief clearly on her face as it was her own. "Why? What's the point of robbing an old woman's house and killing her."_

_She shook her head, puzzled over why someone would do this. Then she saw something dark on her neck. She gently brushed the gray curls away from her neck and saw it. Bruises. _

_Finger-shaped bruises. _

_She looked up at her, "Val, look at this. It's bruises. Someone tried to strangle her before they stabbed her." Both looked up at the other; this was personal. They wanted her to suffer. Val's eyes blazed green flames, "That sonofabitch Cade. Johnny's dad must have done this. Johnny doesn't even know Gram talked to his parents." Her hand went instantly to her stomach, her eyes wide. "He knows, Kate. He knows about the baby." This morning at work Val took a pregnancy test and confirmed her hunch. _

_She was pregnant. _

_She and Kate both were, neither had wanted to tell Johnny and Dally till they were sure. The eerie silence was broken by the sound of police sirens. Both looked at one another in alarm. The police. And both had Gram's blood on them from kneeling beside her. Kate tugged at Val's arm, "Come on, we have to get some clothes and run to the cabin. Come on, Val!"_

_She looked up at her with wide eyes, "But we didn't kill her!" Kate's face hardened and took her face between her hands, "Val. Look at us! We have her blood all over us and live in the bad part of town; we'd look guilty to even the most trusting cop! Come on!" They hurried to their room and grabbed a book bag and both threw clothes and as much food as they could before running out the back door and running as fast as they could to the woods that would lead them to their grandfather's old hunting cabin. Neither slowed down till they could no longer hear the sirens and cars_….

_It had been four days since they ran in the dark of n__ight from their Gram's house. Four days since their lives had gone to hell and not a damn thing they could to for it. That morning they ran out of the little food they brought with them, they both wore heavy jackets and sunglasses and made the trip into the little town a mile away from the cabin. They were buying a loaf of bread and ham with what little money that had on them, when a little boy came up to them, "'Xcuse me. But this man told me to give you this." He gave them a envelope with 'Kate & Val' written on the front. They looked at one another then at him; Kate smiled down at him, "What did this man look like?" He scrunched up his face and scratched his head, "He was kinda short, had jeans and a big jacket on, with a baseball hat and sunglasses on. Kinda tanned like ya'll." Both looked at one another with apprehension, that could easily describe Johnny or his dad." Val ruffled his hair and bought him a pack of gum from the counter, "Thanks, kid. Here." He grinned up at her, "Thanks!" They left the store quickly and snuck into the alley beside it and ripped open the envelope and found a letter inside._

"_If you want to get out of Oklahoma, meet me at the Ogemaw Bridge at midnight tonight. Gina was killed for a reason. Be careful, the police in Tulsa and the surrounding area have warrants out for you both for her murder. You have to get out of here before they catch you. That's when Gina's killer will make his move."_

_They both looked up at one another at the same time, both looked doubtful. "Should we trust this guy?" Val shook her head wearily, "I don't see where we have a choice, Kate. If we stay here, he finds us and we're dead. If they catch us, we're off to jail and we're dead." Kate nodded, "Then we should go in prepared. Tonight is no moon; we'll sneak back to Gram's house and get some more clothes, the money she kept stashed." Val nodded and a little smile crossed her lips, "And Dad's old 9mil and hunting knife."_

_That night they made their way back to Tulsa in the dark and packed a couple of bags and snuck down to the woods down by the bridge till it was time._

_Kate toyed with the necklace Dally gave her, wondering how everything that seemed to be going so good, suddenly turned so bad._

_Val toyed with the wedding band on her hand, wondering if Johnny had kept his hidden like she did when no one was around. She kept wondering if she would wake up at any moment to find this all a bad nightmare. That she would wake up in the cabin with Johnny lying next to her. Or she would be back in Georgia, looking around her room in the dark._

_She tensed when she saw the headlights cut through the darkness of the winter night. She looked over to Kate and nodded. She withdrew Granddad's old hunting rifle from the longs folds of the coat she wore, and approached the car. Kate was ready to shoot should the person threaten her sister. _

_But neither were ready for the person that stepped out of the car. _

_It was Mrs. Cade. _

_She looked sober for the first time since they moved here. Her hair was wild, but clean, her clothes had seen better days, but both notices the smell of cigarettes and cheap wine didn't radiate off the woman as it usually did. She walked hesitantly to the middle of the bridge, meeting them half way. She didn't say anything at first. _

_But then she cleared her throat "There's a couple of licenses and papers to hold you over till you cross the Oklahoma border."_

_She cleared her throat, her voice permanently hoarse from all the years of smoking and alcohol. _

"_There's uh.. there's a envelope with money in it in the glove compartment. You should be okay till you get to New York and get jobs, maybe even till the baby is born if you spend it right." Both looked at her like she grew another head. _

_Kate wordlessly walked over to the car, her rifle out and cocked. She looked around and in the car and nodded to Val. No one was inside. _

_She stared at the woman in front of her. She saw then, if she hadn't been ravaged by alcohol and her life, Isabella would be a attractive woman even though she had to be nearing her late-forties. _

"_Why?"_

_Isabella shrugged, not looking her in the eye. "I overheard Robert talking to one of his drinking buddies the other night. He planned to kill you and the baby." Her eyes met hers then, "And Kate if she got in the way." She shook her head, "I'll admit, I've not been the best mother to John. But I can't let Robert do this. I know he was the one that killed Gina, or paid someone to do it. I was afraid he would since that day she came over and told us about you and Johnny and then about you being pregnant." _

_To their surprise, tears began to run down the older woman's face. "I lost one child and then I pushed Johnny away because I was hurting so bad, I couldn't let myself love him and lose him too. I lost Johnny when I wouldn't stand up to Robert when he started hitting him, I won't let him take away the best thing that ever happened to him." _

_She took a shaky breath and gestured back to the car, "You better hurry. The patrols are due to start soon and they'll spot you." They both nodded and tossed their bags in the back seat and Kate went over to the passenger seat while Val slid in behind the driver's seat. Isabella shut the door behind her and leaned down. She didn't say anything for a long moment, only the sound of the river broke the silence. When she spoke her voice was thick with emotion. "Get as far away from here as you can, girls. If you come back here, wait till your at least eighteen. Johnny will be nineteen then, Robert won't have a say then." She gently squeezed her arm, "Take care of that baby, Valerie. Don't do like I did and push it away cause you're afraid if you love it, it'll be taken away from you."_

_Her voice trembled, "Love that baby." _

_She patted her arm and let go and stepped back, "Kate, I'll try and get word to Dallas your okay. Valerie, when and if you come back," she hesitated then lifted her chin, "When you come back, promise me this. You'll convince Johnny to get as far away from here as you can. Besides, the Curtis boys and their friends, you're the only good thing he got out of this town." _

_She gestured to the dark road ahead of them. "Hurry, the patrols start in another fifteen minutes, you need to be leaving the city by that time." They both nodded their understanding. Val drew her hand and she took it. "Thanks, Mrs. Cade. For all of it. Tell Johnny I love him." She wiped the tears brimming from her eyes away, "Tell him, I'll be back. But please don't tell him about the baby. I don't want him to know. At least not this way." _

_Isabella nodded and smiled, "I will, Valerie." She pulled away and watched them as they turned the car around and started down the road, watching till the red taillights were no longer visible…_

The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Kate and Val signed off with a promise to call tomorrow, but they all still stared at the screen like it was alien. None of them could believe it. But it was the truth, and it made sense once it all came together. It was about one o'clock in the morning when the guys said their goodbyes and headed home. Jane and Kate showered and dressed for bed, but neither made the move to go to their rooms. They just sat there on the couch, looking at the TV, but not paying any attention to the show on.

Sam let out a heavy sigh and turned to Jane, "I'm going to my captain tomorrow and tell her what I found out tonight. Tim said they never got who killed her, so the case is a unsolved. Once Mom and Aunt Val give their story, her case will probably be considered solved."

Jane snorted, "Yeah, too bad the bastard that killed her is already dead." She sighed and ran her hands threw her hair in agitation and spoke what had been on her mind since they talked with her mom.

"I'm going to try and get a hold of dad's medical records. It might take a while, but I'm going to try." Sam frowned at her, "Why?"

Jane laid her face in her hands, "'Cause dad's cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest due to a allergic reaction to the pain and antibiotic medication they had him on. They didn't know he was allergic to that combination when they gave it to him." She raised her head and looked at her, "What if his dad knew it?"

Sam nodded her understanding, "Then I'd say you had a investigation on your hands." She took her hand in hers and gave it a quick squeeze, "I'll help you with it and if I can be needed, Janie." She smiled and squeezed back. "Thanks, Sammie. I just might take you up on that offer. Now let's go to bed. We both have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and patience. Oh, I didn't know what the name of the bridge in the book was called, so I just used the first name that came to me. If anyone knows what it's called, I'll be happy to change it._


	26. Chapter 26

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively._

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Four

Randi sat back in the chair and looked around the room. She and Jesse were in the hospital waiting room; they were getting tested for the paternity test. Her doctor in Savannah called her two nights ago and told her of a new procedure where they could do the test before fourteen weeks. Randi had just reached the eight week mark and was eligible to do the new test. She told Jesse what she had told her and they both agreed to it. She called the doctor she was seeing here and she scheduled them a appointment for this afternoon at the hospital. In two weeks they would have the results back, maybe sooner depending on how fast the lab could get it completed.

She looked over at Jesse, "Are you as nervous as I am?" He looked at her and nodded, "Oh yeah. I was still psyching myself up for the test a month from now when you told me about this."

She gave a nervous chuckle. So was she, it was still another month before she had to find out when she got the call about the new test. She was relived but at the same time nervous about the test. She was relieved at the knowledge she would soon know who the father was, but at the same time she was nervous about the possibility the test said Jesse wasn't the father. Because if he wasn't, she wasn't just back at square one; she was all the way out of the ballpark.

A nurse came out and looked down at the clipboard in her hand, "Will the Mathews and Lewis party come with me?" They both got up and followed her back to a hall of doors. She led them to a room and gestured for them to sit. "If you'll be seated a lab tech will be with you in a few moments." Randi sat on the table while Jesse paced the room. The silence got to be oppressive and Jesse said the first thing that popped into his mind. "So, what are they doing again?"

She looked up from the pamphlet she was reading and frowned at him, "I already told you twice what they do."

He shrugged, "I know, but humor me. This place gives me the creeps." She rolled her eyes, but explained it anyway, "My doctor in Savannah told me about this new procedure to do the test. It's called a Non-Invasive Pre-Natal Paternity Test. Instead of inserting a needle in my stomach and taking some of the placenta fluid, they take some of my blood and test it for fetal cells. With you all you have to give them a cheek swab."

He frowned, "Why is this way better than the needle in the stomach, wouldn't that be more accurate?" She shook her head, "No, it's just as accurate. With the needle in the stomach there's a chance the needle might hit the baby or cause me to go into premature labor and miscarry. This way there isn't that small chance." They fell silent again, both lost in their own thoughts.

The lab tech came in a few minutes later to draw her blood. He was tall and slim with a wealth of blue-black hair. And Randi recognized him as one of the men that attacked her and Jesse on Valentine's Day.

She jumped off the bed and backed away from him, taking up a defensive stance were Jesse sat. He looked as surprised as they were.

He backed up, holding his hands in surrender. "I'm not here to fight. I'm just here to draw blood." She looked at him then at his name on his lab coat for a long moment. She sat back down on the table, taking her jacket off with slow, precise movements; she pushed the long sleeve of her sweater up and held her arm out. He moved cautiously to her side and prepped her arm to take the blood, all the while keeping his eye on a tense Jesse. But before he could insert the needle he heard her say softly, "Your last name is Taylor. I suggest you don't try anything, remember what I'm capable of." He nodded his head; he knew exactly what she was capable of. His friend still had a busted jaw and broke nose from her high heel kick.

He drew blood from Randi then took a cotton swab and scraped the inside of Jesse's cheek. He put the cotton swab in a white envelope and put it and the vial of blood in the pack. He turned back to the tense couple, "I'll take this to the lab now and you should get the results back in the next week to two weeks." He started to the door when he turned back to them, he looked shamed-faced. "Look, about that night a couple of weeks ago; I'm real sorry about that. I went out with a couple of old friends and had too many drinks to realize much anything. I didn't even remember it till the next morning when I saw the bruises."

He pulled back his lab coat and shirt to reveal a part of a bruise on his chest.

He tugged it back into place and started to open the door when it was forcefully shut. He turned and looked into stormy gray eyes. He backed him into the door and grabbed his shirt front in his hands.

"What are you sorry about, man? Sorry that you were hanging with a bunch of dead-beat drunk Socs that didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground? That you were all ready and willing to gang up on my woman? Were gonna beat me stupid?" He snarled into his face. "Damn it you little sonofabitch, you could have hurt her and made her lose the baby! Do you know what you could have caused?"

"Cause make no mistake, Taylor. If you or those idiots you were hangin' with that night had caused her to lose the baby, I'dve stomp your ass so far into the ground China woulda been diggin you up." He let him go and pushed him aside and opened the door, pulling Randi close behind him.

* * *

Jane stepped into the hospital lobby and walked straight to the desk. The nurse looked up at her and smiled, "Hello, how can I help you?" She gave a brief smile back and held out a stack of papers, "I hope you can, I'm Jane Cade. I talked to your supervisor earlier this week to see my father's medical records. Here is the information she requested I bring for verification." She took the papers from her and gave them a brief glance before looking back up at her, "One moment please, Ms. Cade. I need to talk to Mrs. Jones to verify." She nodded and watched her make a call, "Marcia? Hi, this is Mary at the Front Desk. A woman named Jane Cade is here to pick up a copy of her father's medical records…" The woman looked surprised then looked at her, she nodded, "Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am, I will." She hung up and looked at her, her composure shaken. "Mrs. Jones has the files personally, her office is up the stairs and the last door on the left." She nodded to her and walked in the direction she pointed her. A few minutes later she was knocking on a office door with 'Marcia Jones, RN Supervisor', on it. The door opened and a woman a little taller than her greeted her. She wore the typical scrubs and looked to be around her thirties, she had dark prematurely graying hair and a pleasant smile.

She gestured for her to seat and took a seat behind the big paper-littered desk. "Lieutenant, it's a pleasure to meet you. Are you liking Tulsa fine?" She smiled, "Please, I'm not on duty right now. Jane is fine. As for what I think about Tulsa…" She shrugged, "What can I say? Tulsa isn't that different from Savannah."

_They both hide what's beneath the surface with a pretty picture. _

She nodded and fell silent for a moment, taking her in with a scrutiny that would have made her uncomfortable if she wasn't so use to it. Finally she stood and handed her a manila folder, "Here is the copy of your father's medical records. I'm sorry you and I had to meet like we did, Jane. I didn't know you father that well, but anyone brave enough to have went into a burning building to save a bunch of kids he didn't even know; well he was worth wanting to know." Jane felt the back of her eyes burn, but wouldn't let the tears fall. In the month and a half she had been here, she had cried more than she had in her whole life. But she didn't come here to meet someone that said pretty words that might not have meant them if she had the chance. She was here to find out if there was more to her father's death than met the eye. She smiled and held out her hand, "Thank you Mrs. Jones. I'm glad to know that. If you'll excuse me I have to be going now, my shift starts in the next thirty minutes and I need to get this back to my home." She turned and left the office, walking back down the stairs and out to the parking lot.

It had been a lie she told the woman; she didn't have to work that day. But she didn't want to be here any longer than she had to. She hated hospitals with a passion. It wasn't just the agony and death they represented. It was the also the despair and pain they had stood for in the last fourteen years of her life.

* * *

Sam looked at down at her captain from her position on the ladder. She nodded at her and she uncapped the black marker and balanced the box on her lap and wrote, 'Solved' across the side. She capped the marker and carefully stood and put the box on the top shelf. She got down and looked up at it from the ground. Meredith shook her head and smiled, "You did good, Sam. One of our unit's oldest cases has been solved and your mother and aunt have closure." She nodded and looked at her, "Yeah. Too bad it came twenty-six years too late and the killer died before justice could be served." She walked away from her and left the warehouse, her captain alone with her thoughts.

Later that night while Meredith cooked and Sylvia set the table she told her what she learned the motive for Gina Miller's murder. Sylvia gaped at her for a long moment, finally shook her blonde head and looked at her in disbelief.

"So let me get this straight; Gina was killed because Johnny's dad found out about Val and him gettin' married and Val was pregnant?"

She nodded, "That about sums it up."

She shook her head and reached in the fridge for drinks. "That is just unbelievable. So her case is considered solved now?" She nodded, bringing the platter of pasta to the table. "Yep. Too bad her killer couldn't be brought to justice. But he suffered in the end." Meredith frowned at her, "What do you mean?" Sylvia shrugged her shoulders and took a dainty bite of her food.

"Well, I heard from a woman in the salon when him and his wife were brought back to Tulsa, she heard from the guy that brought them here that it was all over their town how he killed his wife then turned the gun on himself. He heard from the M.E. he hadn't shot himself fatally, but with the blood loss, it took an hour for him to die. And that he was a stranger in their town and hunted his estranged wife down and killed her."

Meredith gaped at her, "How the hell did I not hear that? And why didn't you tell me you heard that?" She smiled sweetly and took a sip of water, "Well, hon don't you remember? You said a long time ago you didn't want to hear any gossip I heard down at the salon."

She opened her mouth to comment when she was interrupted by the front door slamming. Footsteps echoed threw the room as a tall man with blue-black hair entered the room.

He smiled down at Sylvia, "Hey, Ma." leaning down to kiss her on the cheek. He took a plate and set down beside Meredith, "Hey Mer,"and kissed her on the cheek while he heaped the food on his plate. Both women shook their heads at him. "Adam, what are you doing here? I thought Erin was keeping you fed now that she moved in with you." He shook his head, "She didn't want to cook tonight. Told me I could eat with you guys." They looked at one another out of the corner of their eyes. That didn't sound like Erin, the woman loved two things; cooking and cooking for Adam.

Sylvia reached out and tapped his empty hand, "Everything okay?" He shrugged, "I don't want to talk about it." stuffing a piece of food in his mouth, ending the discussion. Both women exchanged looks over his bent head. They continued to eat, waiting for the right moment to bring it up.

Thirty minutes later they were clearing the table when Sylvia approached the subject again. "Adam, what's wrong? Are you and Erin having a fight?" Meredith looked over at him in alarm. Both had hoped Erin would be a keeper, she had brought a smile and laughter to him that hadn't been there since Adam had come back from the Reserves stationed in post-Katrina New Orleans. He shook his head, "No. She threw me out of the apartment. Told me she never wanted to see me again." The room was silent except for the running water in the sink.

"Why?" He didn't answer. Sylvia lifted his head and was stunned to see tears running down his face.

"I really screwed up, Ma. I had a few drinks with some friends a couple of weeks ago-" Sylvia made a sound in the back of her throat, "Adam Taylor, what have I told you about drinking? You know what it does to us."

He nodded, he knew. He was the result of a drunken one-night stand his mother had with a drunk soc when she was seventeen.

Up till he was ten he had spilt his life between being the illegitimate son of decorated Army Captain Quinn Fitzgerald and the other half as the son of the former town slut and bisexual beautician, Sylvia Taylor. Since that night she had sworn off alcohol and made him promise not to drink when he got older. Valentine's Day night had been a perfect example of what happened to any of the Taylors when they had too much to drink.

Meredith turned the water off and knelt in front of him, turning his face to look in hers. "Adam, what happened? I don't know what I can do, but if it's something with the law, I'll do what I can to help."

He broke eye contact and shook his head, "I don't think so."

She smiled up at him, "Try me." He took a deep breath and told them what happened that night. When he finished Sylvia slapped him upside the head, "Are you completely crazy?! I might have raised you the first ten years of your life in a run-down trailer with trash all over the place, but I for damn sure didn't raise you to act like it!" Mer looked at him with wide eyes, "This woman, is her name Randi, tall with red hair and green eyes?" He nodded; she jumped up and began to pace the floor, muttering to herself.

Finally she stopped in front of him and looked at him with a emotion he rarely saw from his stepmother. Fear.

She pointed her finger at him, "I want you to stay away from her. Do you hear me, Adam Taylor? You stay away from that woman!"

Sylvia looked at her in shock, "Mer, what's going on? Who is she?" She looked at them with hesitation, she was about to reveal something that stayed within the ranks. But this was her family, she may not have gave birth to Adam, but he was as much her son as he was Sylvia's.

She took a breath and spoke, "She's Sergeant Randi Lewis of the Savannah S.W.A.T. She's probably the best sniper their squad has seen in over thirty years. And she's the baby sister of Jane Cade and Sam Winston."

Adam frowned, "They don't look anything alike." She waved it away, "Their not really related, except for Jane and Sam being cousins. Randi grew up with them and is considered family. Both are extremely protective of her. Separately their dangerous, together they are truly lethal." Adam looked at her incredulously while Sylvia shook her head and forced a laugh. "You're kidding."

She knew that whatever Mer was trying to say, she wasn't exaggerating. It just wasn't her way.

Meredith shook her head and took a deep breath. She gestured back to the table and they sat down while she reached in the back of the cabinet for something.

* * *

Both were stunned to see it was a dusty, unopened bottle of vodka. She twisted the cap, breaking the seal and took a big gulp of it before joining them at the table. She didn't say anything for a long moment, just fiddled with the label on the bottle. Finally she spoke, "What I'm about to tell you two, can never leave this room." They both nodded, she looked at them threw narrowed eyes, "I'm serious. Adam, swear it on Quinn's grave. Sylvia you too." Both looked at her with wide eyes, Mer never acted like this, whatever she was going to tell them must be serious.

They nodded and did as she asked. She took another gulp from the bottle and spoke, "Alright. You know Sam Winston was assigned to my unit when she moved her, and that she was Cold Case in Savannah?" They both nodded, it was the curse of small towns; everyone knew each other's business.

She let out a breath and continued, "What you don't know is that before that, Sam and Jane were partners in homicide." Sylvia frowned, "What does that got to do with anything?"

She shook her head, "I'm fixin to tell you. Last year before they were split up into different units, they were on a murder case. A abducted child had been brutally murdered and they were put on the case. A month after they were given it, the cold trail got hot again and they went up into the mountains to question a man that a eyewitness had seen the child with last." She took a deep breath and tipped the bottle up. Adam leaned forward, "What happened, it was a dead end?" She shook her head, "No," she whispered hoarsely.

"They were ambushed coming up to his property. He was part of a small trafficking ring and they opened fire on them as he they were coming up the driveway." Both looked at her in horror. When Adam was fifteen Meredith and her Narcotic unit had been ambushed out in the woods to break up a drug lab. The cooks inside knew they were coming and set a bomb for them. Meredith had been blown forty feet away into a tree. She had been the only survivor and had spent a lot of her time after that in the hospital and therapy.

She broke threw her thoughts and continued on, "They had a standoff for the next twelve hours while their backup made their way up the treacherous mountains. Sam had been shot in the shoulder and was losing blood fast."

She took a shaky breath, "According to Jane's statement, Sam died from the blood loss. Or she thought she did; she actually was going into shock from the blood loss." Sylvia leaned back in her chair, looking shaken by what she heard so far. Meredith knew how she felt, when she had called in a favor and got a hold of the sealed documents for Sam's case, she had never wanted a drink as bad as she did when she read that file.

Silvia looked at her with sad eyes, remembering back to the dark days after Mer came home from ICU. "What happened?"

Meredith looked at them with hollow eyes, "Jane went insane," she whispered hoarsely. "She went nuts, and climbed the rocks up to the house. She killed every one of them. There were six of them and she killed them all with either her knife or her service Glock. According to the file she got into a knife fight with one of them. She turned him into a shish-kabob she slashed and cut him so many times. According to the backup's statement it looked like a war zone when they were finally able to get up there. Jane was covered in blood and was keeping Sam alive with her emergency training."

Both were pale at her words. Adam looked at her, "Was she charged with anything?" She shook her head, "No, she was suffering from temporary insanity and was injured herself, so she was cleared of any charges. And it helped her case that she took down a trafficking ring and had their records in the house before they could be destroyed, causing bigger members of the ring to be caught as well. She was 'promoted' to Lieutenant and 'transferred' out to Missing Persons." She looked at him with bleary, hollow eyes. "That's why I want you to stay away from her, she's dangerous on her own, but with one sister being one of the most dangerous cops in town, and another one just as capable and trained as a sniper like she is, I don't want you caught in any cross fires with those three. Do you understand me, Adam?"

He nodded. "Yeah, Mer. I'll stay away from her, but within the next two weeks I have to deliver the results for her test. After that I'll stay clear of her."

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and patience. Oh, a little quick note; the Non-Invasive Pre-Natal Paternity Test does exist, but cause of the timeline in the story I made it eight weeks instead of the real fourteen weeks required. _


	27. Chapter 27

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. Also, I'm real sorry about it being so long since I updated on here, I honestly had no idea it had been that long. Between the holidays and the computer acting up every blessed time I turned around, I couldn't get anything out and when I finally did, my internet messed up, then when it went back to normal-the computer messed up! By the way, NEVER by a Dell-they ain't worth it. No offense to those who own them and like them, but mine's been crazy almost from the get-go._

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Jesse, stop! Jesse, will you slow down before I fall?" Randi was nearly running to keep up with Jesse as he dragged her from the parking garage elevators. She finally tugged her wrist free as he was dragging them down the row where his truck was parked. She pulled him to a stop, "Jesse, what is the matter with you? I appreciate you standing up for me, but what the hell possessed you to do that?" He turned on her with a glower that should have her backing down if she wasn't doing the same. He growled and turned back around and walked the few feet away from the truck. She hurried to the passenger side as he started the engine. She barely shut the door when he backed out and was roaring down the ramp and out into the early morning light.

She buckled herself in before she looked over at him and spoke, "Are you going to tell me what's got you so damn mad that you nearly decked a lab tech?" He didn't answer. She snorted in disgust. "So you're going to give me the silent treatment, huh?" He continued to ignore her and turned the radio wide open. She glared out the window, watching as the sky lightened more and the town wakened. She saw the sign on the Dingo turn and turned to him. "Stop here." He turned into the parking lot and pulled to a stop. She got out and glared at him, "When you don't feel like pouting anymore, you know were to find me. Until then, I'll let you know what the results are when I get them."

She slammed the door shut hard and walked off. She shook her head in disgust when she heard him squeal out of the parking lot. She opened the door and heard the bell ring overhead as she walked in. She saw Curly standing behind the counter and sat her purse down in front of her and climbed up on the bar stool. He looked at her with a cocked eyebrow, something she noticed a lot of guys here did. She shook her head, "Coffee, please. A big cup of coffee."

He brought a cup to her and filled it with fresh, steaming coffee, stilling looking at her questioningly. She shook her head and mixed some cream into it before taking a sip, "Don't ask. Just know, that Jesse Mathews is a immature pain in the ass and I do not want to speak his name again."

He shook his head and took her order. When he went to the back to make her order, he let the grin and laugh he had been holding in bubble up.

Thirty minutes later, her plate was cleared and pushed back from her. Curly looked at her expectantly, "You gonna tell me what's up with Mathews tearing out of here like a bat outta hell and you looked like you could have broke him over you knee like a twig, or do I have to coerce it out of ya?"

She shook her head, "Nothing's wrong. Nothing that me slapping him stupid, wouldn't fix." She started to curse in Cajun. He held up his hands, his brows nearly reaching his hairline. "Easy, girl. I don't know what you said; but I have a feeling I'd need to wash my ears if I did."

She snorted, but gave a amused grin. But it quickly faded as she went back over what happened at the hospital in her head. She glared up at him, "Why do guys feel they have to stand up for a girl even when they are more than capable of handling themselves and there's no need?"

He shook his head, "Jesse stood up for you and your pissed about it? What's up with women? They want equal rights and everything but still want us to stick up for them, then when we do; you get your panties in a knot over it."

He shrugged and shook his head as he took her plate away, "My wife was the only exception; she didn't mind if I took up for her. She thought it was romantic."

She rolled her eyes and gave him a look, "Could your wife easily bench-press 120 and was trained with some of Savannah's orneriest and badasses cops? Cause I was. I had to learn early on, if I was going to work and live in a man's world I had to fight and take care of myself."

She shook her head and took a sip of her now cool coffee. "I don't need someone to stick up for me. I had a father, two overprotective big sisters and a big brother. I don't need to add another one to the list." Curly shook his head and re-filled her cup with fresh coffee. "Well, Randi; I might be overstepping my bounds. But then again, I never gave a damn if I did or not, so I'll just go ahead and say it. Sounds like maybe Mathews stickin' up for you and willin' to fight for you, isn't what a brother or what a friend would do. But what a man would do for his woman."

She was saved from responding by the tingle of the bell over the door and a group of people coming in. She drank her coffee in silence as she puzzled over what Curly said.

She had never found herself attractive; in high school she had always been too tall and too fat to attract the boys. When she left high school and got older, she thought between her height and her ultra curves was just a bonus to why men didn't notice her. That it was her career choice that was really repelling them. Was it possible despite her appearance, her job and her past, Jesse saw her as a woman?

* * *

Ben woke up to something warm and soft lying on his chest. He squinted in the early morning light coming threw the blinds in his bedroom and smiled at the sun reflecting off his companion's blonde hair. His hand wrapped around her shoulder, slowly crept down her arm and was just shy of reaching the curve of her breast when she muttered, "Don't even think about it."

He chuckled and continued to his destination. She slapped his hand away. He shook his head, "Sweetheart, you have the day off. We can have a little early morning fun." She raised her head and looked up at him threw her curtain of tangled curls. "You mean like yesterday when I told you I have the next three days off and you haven't let me leave this bed since then." She shook her head, "Uh-uh, Sailor-Boy. I'm not meant to stay in bed all day long. I have to get up and move." She proved her point by grabbing the blanket off the bed and wrapped it around her, getting off the bed and walk to the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom. He heard the shower turn on and grinned as a idea popped into his head. He threw the sheet back and strode into the bathroom. He saw the sheet on the floor in front of the shower and saw the outline of her form threw the shower door. He opened the door slowly so she wouldn't hear it and snuck in behind her.

She was humming under her breath as she washed her hair. He picked up a bottle of body wash Sam kept over for the rare occasion she stayed the night and rubbed some of the soap between his hands til it was lathered. He leaned forward and cupped her breasts in his hands, rubbing the soap over her smooth skin. Instead of her being shocked or outraged, she leaned back into him and nipped the underside of his jaw. "I wondered what took you so long."

He grinned down at her, that was what he liked about her; she never did anything she didn't want to. Including being taken unaware. He turned her around in his arms and took her mouth hungrily, while he was backing her up against the shower wall. He smiled when his hands wondered down her breasts, waist and hips to his destination, rewarding him with her moan of pleasure. He wrapped her legs around his waist, sliding into her with a groan, echoing the one she released. He grinned down at her, "Still think you need a rain check?" She answered him by bringing his face down to her and taking his mouth in a passionate kiss.

* * *

Jesse pulled into the Mathews bar parking lot with a screech and a curse. He looked around the empty parking lot and realized he was a hour earlier than even his dad. He killed the engine and got out of the truck with a slam. He fumbled with the keys to the back door and slammed it open and went inside.

Two-Bit was pulling into the bar's parking lot when he saw Jesse's truck was already there. He frowned when he got out and felt the hood. He had been here for a while if the cold hood was any indication. He shrugged and walked the length of the parking lot and walked in the back door. He could hear Jesse moving around in the back room, a unopened crate of liquor sat on the bar top. He walked around the bar and took his leather coat off and tied his bar apron around his waist, stuffing the coat under the counter. He was unloading the crate when he heard Jesse coming up to the front, but that wasn't what surprised him. It was what he was speaking. He set the box down on the bar and stopped in mid-sentence when he saw his Dad. He shook his head and gave him a amused smirk, "I knew your Mama teaching you how to speak Irish was a bad idea. Now's what's eating ya? The only time you talk in Irish is when your mad and don't want anyone to know your cussing a blue streak." He had the grace to blush at his father's dead-on guess. He opened the box and took a couple of bottles out, "It's Randi. That woman has to be the most confusing woman I've met!" Two-Bit cocked a eyebrow, "Including your mother?" He snorted, "Hell, Dad she's worse than mom! At least Mom knows when to pick her fights." Two-Bit's eyes widened. "What happened, you don't this worked up over nothing." He set the bottle down and sighed, "Something happened at the hospital today." Two-Bit was silent for a long moment, which was never a good thing for him, and dragged the stool over to sit down on. "Maybe you should start at the beginning." Jesse took a deep breath and told him what happened, about that night on Valentine's Day, the lab tech and how Randi stormed out of his truck and told him she would call him when he wasn't acting so immature. When he finished, Two-Bit looked like he would either deck the guy too or bust out laughing, finally he broke out in a belly-rolling laugh. He grinned and shook his head, "Son, it sounds like she appreciated it, but at the same time didn't feel like it was needed." Jesse opened his mouth, but Two-Bit held his hand up to silence him.

He looked at him solemnly, his laughing gray eyes sober for once. "Jesse, you got to take this in to consideration; Randi is a cop. And is SWAT. Now, I don't know much about the police force, except how to needle them, but I'd say Randi had to learn how to fight, and take her licks without someone standing up for her or fighting her fights. I'd say that's hard to let go or let someone else fight her battles for her." He looked at his son, "You see were I'm getting at?" He nodded; he got it and saw what he meant about Randi. She had gotten were she had in her career, by fighting for herself, and having someone all of a sudden come in and try to fight for her, was like he was saying she wasn't as capable as she knew she was.

He sighed, "I guess I need to apologize for overeating, huh?" Two-Bit grinned at him, "If you want her to speak to ya again, might not be a bad idea."

* * *

Jane looked up at the knock on the door from the file she was reading. She ignored it, trying to read the file in front of her. But when they knocked again she growled and closed it and set on down on the coffee table and got up to answer it.

It had been nearly a week since she got a copy of her father's medical records, and had til yet got the chance to read it past the first sentence. If not someone interrupting her, it was work. This week, her case load went from one or two teenage runaways to two missing small children, runaway teen and a elderly mental patient missing from their nursing home. She opened the door, about to blast the person on the other side when she stopped mid-word. It was Pete, only he looked like he went a few rounds with Mike Tyson. His face was black and blue, and he had a nasty cut on his cheek. "Pete, what happened?!"

She grabbed him by his coat and dragged him inside and slammed the door behind him. She led him over to the couch, he sat down with a hiss, "Were are you hurt?" He winced as he shrugged, "All over."

She stood up, "I'll be back in a sec, I'm going to get the first aid kit." She hurried into her room and pulled at a large first aid kit from under her bed. She came back a minute later with the case in hand. She knelt in front of him, "Here, let me help you out of your jacket." He leaned forward and winced when he did; she helped him out of his jacket and tossed it on the far side of the couch. With an efficiency he didn't think she had, she had his shirt unbuttoned and opened, baring his chest and stomach to her gaze. She sucked in a sharp breath at the sight, bruises peppered his muscled stomach and chest. She leaned in a little closer and saw a shallow gash slashed across his chest were his heart was.

She opened the kit and took out a couple of alcohol packets. She tore one open, "Take a breath, this might hurt." She swabbed at the cut gingerly, flinching when he hissed and gritted his teeth. She pulled one side of the shirt away to get to the cut better when she saw another one slashed across his ribs. She dabbed at it before looking up at him, "What happened, Pete? Did you get jumped or is this from a ungrateful patient?" He gave a harsh laugh, only to start groaning as he did, his ribs must be sore or bruised. He looked at her threw a blackened eye, "You know how you said you didn't want it known we were dating so someone from a case you worked wouldn't try to get to me to get to you?" She nodded, dreading were this was going.

"Well, this was from a abusive boyfriend, whose's girl you tried to help when you were off-duty. You told her to think about going to a women's shelter. She did, and he heard I was the one that drove her there, he decided to 'teach' me about messing with her."

She sat back on her heels, stunned. She gathered her composure and arched a brow at him, "And here I thought was protecting you by not getting publicly involved with you." She shook her head and looked at him sadly, "It looks like it found you anyhow."

Pete let out another hiss as she wiped at his bruises and dabbed ointment on the cuts. She bent down to get a bandage, causing her shirt to rid up in the back. He saw her tattoo at the base of her spine, but as she reached further to get the bandage, her shirt rode a couple of inches up more, showing a scar on her back. He reached out and gently touched it. "What is this?" She gasped and shot straight up, nearly cracking heads with him. Her eyes were wide and her face was pale, "It's n-nothing." She finished bandaging his cuts and capped the ointment, leaving him to button his shirt. She picked up the used wipes and swabs and went into the kitchen to discard them. When she didn't come back a few minutes later, he got up, trying to hold back a moan as he did, and went to see where she was. She was sitting on the kitchen stool, with a faraway look in her eyes. He nudged her; she came back with a jerk. He looked at her with concern, "Jane, are you okay?"

She didn't respond at first, he came over and gently shook her, she came back with a startled look in her eyes. He frowned, "Jane, are you okay?" She looked at him surprised and nodded her head, "Yeah, I'm fine." She got off the stool and went over to the coffeepot, "Want some coffee?" He looked at her oddly, "Jane, what's going on? I saw a scar on your back and you're acting like I just discovered a government secret." She turned to him, "Nothing's wrong, it's just a scar I got when I was a kid. I don't like for it to show, that's all."

He walked up behind her, "If it's nothing then let me see it." Before she had a chance to say no he was pulling the back of her shirt up. She bit the inside of her lip when she heard him inhale sharply. He touched the scar he saw earlier, only it wasn't that that had him seeing red. It was the scars crisscrossed over her back, disappearing underneath her shirt and the waistband of her jeans.

"Jane, what happened? Who the hell the beat you?" She jerked away and shakily pulled her shirt down, "Pete, I think you might need to leave. I cleaned your cuts and you should be fine." She walked him out of the kitchen and to the front door.

He turned around to speak only to have her hand him his coat. He started to speak when she held her hand up, "Pete, please. If you have any feelings toward me at all, you will leave right now and never ask me about this again." She shut the door in his face and braced herself against the door, when she heard his footsteps walk away she slid down the door. She looked down at her hands and so to her shame they were shaking. She hadn't wanted him to ever see those, only a very few in this whole world had ever seen those and she had wanted to keep it that way. She never wanted Pete to see that side of her.

It was dark when Sam came back from Ben's. She unlocked the door and walked inside the darkened room, smiling to herself as she thought back to the incredible day she had spent with him. She walked over to the lamp on the table and turned it on, her grin and mellow mood faded when she saw Jane had been sitting on the couch in the dark. But what surprised her more was the heavy smell of cigarettes in the air. A over-flowing ashtray sat on the coffee table, a nearly empty bottle of whiskey was in one hand, a fresh cigarette in her other. She looked up at her with blood-shot eyes, Sam sat down beside her, "Jane what's wrong?"

She didn't answer her, just took another drag off the cigarette and took another gulp of the whiskey, wincing when it burned down her throat. Sam felt a dread creep into her,

Jane gave up smoking after Mikey came into her life; she didn't want him to be around it at such a young age and him just getting over being caught in a fire.

And the whiskey bottle in her hand, that shook her more than the smoking- Jane never drank; she refused to after hearing how it messed her dad's life up and what it did to a person. She could count on one hand how many times she had seen Jane drank a whole bottle or glass of alcohol since they were old enough to drink.

She took another drink; Sam took it out of her hands and set it out of reach on the table. "Jane, what's going on?" She took another drag off her cigarette, stubbing it out before looking up at her. Her eyes looked haunted and hollow, "I think I need to stop seeing Pete." Sam looked at her with shock, "Jane, why? He's so good for you." She looked at her with misery swimming in her dark eyes, "He saw the scars, Sam," she whispered hoarsely. "He saw them and asked me were I got them. W-who gave them to me. I can't tell him." She looked at her, tears swimming in her eyes, "I won't. I can't tell him and risk see that look in his eyes like I saw in everyone else's." She ducked her head, "Have him turn away from the _freak_ cause of how she looks," she whispered brokenly.

Sam pulled her into her arms, "Janie. Janie, don't. Don't-"

She shook her head, "No, it's bad enough I relive it in my dreams, but for him to see that part of me. To face what I really am…."

Sam glared at her angrily, "See what part of you? The heroic side that risked her life for what she did? That because of her, a killer is off the streets."

She shook her head and a wiped her face angrily, looking at her with angry eyes, "The part of me that's a killer. The part were I'm nothing but a straight-up, cold-blooded killer!"

* * *

It was late in the night when Pete heard a knock on the door. He turned around and pulled his pillow over his head, wincing when his sore ribs protested the fast movement. He didn't know who it was and didn't care, he wasn't leaving this bed til he had to work a fourteen hour shift at three am tomorrow morning.

The knocking didn't cease, finally he grumbled and threw the blankets off and pulled on a pair of pajama pants and went to answer the door. Only instead of one of his crazy sisters coming to him for guy problems or his numerous cousins, it was Sam on the other side. She was in sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt, a heavy winter coat over them. She winced when she saw his face, "Damn, Jane was right. Someone beat the hell out of ya but good." He rolled his one good eye, and glared at her. Is there a reason you're here at one o'clock in the morning, or did you just come here to insult me?" She chuckled and let herself in. She sank down on the couch and crossed her legs.

"By all means, make your self at home," he said sarcastically and shut the door. He could see where his dad and uncles thought she was a lot like Dal. He'd come in and act like he owned the place too; he half expected her to take a pack of cigarettes out and a lighter. She smiled, "I think I will. Now, come over here and listen. I don't know when Jane will wake up so I'm going to be quick about this." He sat down in the chair opposite of her. "What's wrong? Is something wrong with Jane?" She shook her head, "No. At least, not the way you think of. Jane said you saw her back today."

He nodded, feeling his stomach churn at remembering seeing the crisscrossed white scars marring her coppery skin. "What happened, she said she had a scar from when she was a kid. But that didn't look like something she got as a kid, that looked like something that happened within a few years ago." She nodded, "You're right. What I'm about to tell you, can never _never_ leave this room. Only Jane, myself, and four other people know about what happened that night. We wanna keep it that way."

She let out a heavy sigh, "About seven years ago, me and Jane had just made Detective in Homicide. We were handed our first case, it was a serial killer that had been terrorizing women in Savannah for the last several months. When the detectives that handled it before us retired, we got handed it."

She let out a sigh, running a hand threw her wavy hair. She looked up at him with tired eyes, eyes that seemed older than they did when she first came here. "We wanted so bad to be the ones that cracked the case, to give so many of the families closure. But it was the last one that really got to us, got to Jane." She shook her head, "It was someone we went to school with, when we first came back from New York, she had been one of the nicer ones to us. Jane never forgot that. So when we heard she was his latest victim; it made her obsessed with trying to catch him."

She shook her head, crossing her arms over her stomach as the memories came back that she would love to forget. "She ate, drank and slept that case. Finally, about four months after we were handed the case, we got what looked like a break in the case. But the guy we talked to didn't fit it, so we were at another dead end. Except.." He looked at her with knowing eyes, "Except Jane didn't think so."

She nodded, "Correct. She said something about the guy rubbed her the wrong way, so later that night when she went off duty, she went back to his place and surveillanced him." She let out a shaky breath, "I found out later, she surveillanced his place and business for the next two weeks."

"One night she didn't call me on her way home. At the time, I didn't know she was doing surveillance on him, that she was working on something not related to our unit, but she always called me to let me know she was home. Our way of checking one another." She looked up at him with glistening eyes, "I thought she might have been pulling a all-nighter when she didn't answer her phone. It wasn't until the next morning I found out she never came home. I went to her house around noon that day and found the pictures and the case files and everything. I realized then she must have found something and that was why she was missing. I went straight to our captain and told him what I found. We questioned him and couldn't find any evidence that she had been there or he abducted her." She looked down at her feet, "I went back that night, I couldn't shake the feeling that she was there. I made the typical rookie mistake and didn't tell my captain were I was going, my intentions, or have backup. All I cared about was finding Jane, and pray I didn't have to tell my aunt that I let her die, that Jane was dead cause I wasn't more observant."

He started to say something but she shook her head, her hands held up, "No, don't. Let me say this while I've got some control over my emotions."

"I went back and found a underground room at his business, he was using it for holding and killing his victims. And he was holding Jane there." Tears made their way down her face when she looked up at him, her eyes held a glazed look in them, "He had her hanging from a chain in the ceiling by her wrists." She closed her eyes, "He was beating her with a whip," she whispered. She held back the sob bubbling up in her chest as she remembered that night. She could still smell the blood and sweat that overwhelmed the room and see the pain-glazed look in her eyes as the whip was brought done again and again.  
She let out a shuddering breath, "She never screamed. He held her for a nearly a full twenty-four hours and she never screamed, never uttered a word."

"I wanted to kill him so bad I could taste it, could already feel his blood on my hands as his life drained out of him. But I wanted him to suffer more, for everyone to see him for what he was and know he would suffer the hell of prison for what he did."

"I drew my weapon and told him to freeze. Before I could even fire off a shot, he charged me and knocked me to the ground. We struggled for my gun as it went flying across the floor. We fought and struggled to get on top of the other. Next thing I know, he has me pinned has his wrapped around my throat."

She shuddered, "I thought I was dead. That I failed her. Just as I was loosing consciousness, he jerked back. I fought to stay conscious and saw it was Jane. She had been picking the lock while we struggled and got free." She shook her head, "I still don't know were she found the strength to get free and fought like she did. She jumped on his back and was hittin and kickin him for all she was worth. I scrambled for my gun when he rammed into the wall she slid off him and stopped moving and I thought for sure she was dead. He started for me again and I let off a shot. He tackled me to the ground and the shot went wild. Before I could get another shot off Jane jumped on his back. She had grabbed a knife from the table and stabbed him and before he could even blink, she pulled his head back and slit his throat."

She shuddered and went quiet. She was quiet for a long time before she spoke again, her voice rough with emotion. "He was dead before he even hit the floor. I grabbed her up and ran her out to my car and took her to my aunt's coven meeting. One of her coven was a doctor so I flew there and begged them to help her. She had lost a lot of blood and was going into shock."

He looked at her with wide eyes. "Why didn't you take her to the hospital?" She shook her head slowly. "I couldn't and risk them filing a report, they would have asked too many questions. And most of the staff knew her from the times we had to come in for stitches or bring in a injured perp. I didn't want them to see her like that either."

"Brooke and the doc brought us up to a room in the house and they patched her up while I called our captain. Only us and the doc, our captain and a IAB guy knows what happened that night. IAB and our cap agreed that the press would have a field day with us, so our names were kept out of a lot of the police records. IAB have the only full record of what happened that night and they all agreed it should stay that way. Jane went on medical leave with the story she had injured herself at home and I was put on desk duty for the next month for doing a 'investigation' without my captain's sanction." She looked him in the eye, "No one else knows what happened about that case, not even our family. And now you know."

Pete sat on his couch for what felt like hours after Sam left. He felt sick at what she told him, not just what she told him about Jane and herself. But the rest of what she said, Jane had never been the same after that night. She started withdrawing into herself around everyone, including her. She obsessed with going to the gym and training every waking hour she wasn't on a case. She was like that for the next three years, til she got a call out one night about a fire. It was the night she saved and met little Mikey and it had changed her. Sam told him she often thought over the last couple of years since Jane took the boy in, that that little boy had saved her sister from herself.

"That was why I told you what happened to her, Pete. Mikey brought her back to life when he came into her life, but you did more than that. I see how she's around you when doesn't think anybody is paying attention, when she lets her guard down. She's like the old Jane. You brought some of her back since she met you." She stood to leave, "I better go, it's getting real late. I just hope this doesn't effect how you think of her, Pete."

He heard her words echo around in his mind and knew what he was going to do. He got up and found his shoes, shirt and jacket and locked the door behind him.

Ben jerked awake by a knock on the door, he looked at the clock and saw it was three in the morning. He grumbled and stumbled out of bed and down the stairs to the living room, throwing open the front door, glaring at the person on the other side. Sam smiled at him sheepishly, "Sorry to wake you, hon. But can I stay the night? I have a feeling Jane's going to want the apartment to herself in the next few minutes." He glared at her for a full minute before the glare softened and a smile bloomed on his lips. He let out a half-hearted sigh and gestured her to come inside. She smiled gratefully at him and came in, he shut the door and led her to the bedroom. She kicked off her shoes on her side of the bed and tossed her coat over closet door knob behind her. She climbed into the bed next to him, curling up into him as he spooned up behind her. She let out a little yawn and mumbled, "Thanks for letting me crash here tonight, Ben." He held her tighter to him, his face in her hair, "If you really want to thank me, get naked. You know I don't like sharing a bed with you and you wearin pajamas." She laughed and snuggled closer to him, "Then we wouldn't get any sleep. And we both have work in the morning," referring to him working temporary at Darry's company till one of his guys came back to work.

His hand wandered under the hem of her shirt, "I wouldn't mind."

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_Thank you for your reviews and patience. I'm working on the next chapter and hopefully-knock wood- can get it done and sent out soon. _


	28. Chapter 28

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively.

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Chapter Twenty-Six

Jane growled at the sound of someone pounding on her front door. She glared at the alarm clock. Three in the morning. She had been trying to get to sleep for hours now and now that she finally was starting to doze off, some idiot that was probably drunk out of his mind was pounding on her front door. She got up and stomped over to her dresser and took out her off-duty weapon and walked to the front door, determined to shoot whoever it was on the other side. But when she looked out the peephole, it wasn't some drunk idiot. It was her stupid idiot. She unlocked the door and threw it open. She glared at him, "Pete, what the hell are you doing here at three in the morning? You do know I have to get up in the next couple of hours and go to work?"

He didn't say a word as he came into the apartment and shut the door behind him. But the look in his eyes told her something was wrong. That was when she realized she didn't hear Sam, she was a light sleeper and would have come tearin out of her room at the sound of the door pounding. She didn't hear a sound come out of her room. She looked around the living room and realized Randi wasn't in there and her jacket and helmet were gone; most likely another sleepless night and was out on her bike for a late night ride. He walked back to her, standing so close to her she could see the flicks of grey in his greenish eyes. He cupped her face in his hands and brought his mouth down to hers, taking her by surprise at his fierce kiss. When he pulled back she was looking at him with dazed eyes while he was panting for breath. Before she realized what he was doing he was picking her up and carrying her down the hall to her room.

She put both hands out on the doorway to her room, stopping his descend. "Pete, what are you doing?" He didn't say anything, but he pulled her arms away and took her into the room turning the lamp on the night stand on, making them both wince at the suddenly bright light. When he turned back to her, she realized two things; why Sam didn't answer the door and why Pete was here.

He knew.

She could see it swirling in his eyes, anger, disbelief, sorrow and the emotion she never wanted to see in his eyes; pity.

Sam had told him about how her back came to look like someone had beat her within a inch of her life. And it wasn't that far from the truth, that night had nearly been her last one seven years ago. There were still nights she woke up with a scream in her throat and feel the burning sting of the lash cutting into her skin.

He stood in front of her his face a mix of emotions before he spoke, "Is what Sam told me true," he asked quietly.

She knew there was no point in lying now, Sam told him and as much as she would like to tell him she was lying she couldn't. She let out a heavy sigh and nodded, "It's true."

She turned away, not wanting to see him leave after hearing it was all true. She didn't see him move across the room to her side. She started and turned to leave, but he held her still, turning her to face the mirror, her back to his front.

He gently turned her around, her back facing his front. She felt his warm hands on her shoulders, caressing them threw her nightgown, then she felt his hands moved to the front of her gown, unbuttoning it then pushing it off her shoulders, leaving her bare in the cool night air. And to his hungry gaze.

He swept her hair over one shoulder, leaving her back bare to his gaze. She trembled as she felt his hands move over her back, touching the scars. She felt tears burn behind her closed eyes, waiting for his disgust to become apparent. But she felt something different, a brush of something warm over one of the scars. It was his mouth, she realized. She felt the tears burning behind her eyes, flow in a trail down her face at the tender feel of his lips caressing each and every one of her scars. She could feel his puzzlement as his hands and lips pause at the surgical scars at the base of her spine.

But it didn't last long when she felt his lips caress them too, making a breath sob out of her lungs at the feel of him worshipping every part of her, turning the scars she hated into something beautiful. His hands went to her panties, taking them down her hips and past her legs. His hands ran up the trail her underwear had followed, then up the curve of her back, his hands resting on her shoulders. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her bare shoulder, following the trail of her collarbone and the side of her throat, ending at her ear. He whispered softly into her ear, "You're beautiful." She felt another sob escape; she turned in his embrace, afraid to look at his face, staring at his shirt instead. "No I'm not. I'm ugly." Tears ran down her face as she realized she completely bared to him, not just physically but emotionally as well. Only a few people had ever seen her back since that night before Pete and all swore they would never speak of it after that night.

He cupped her face in his hand, bringing her face up to his. She looked into his eyes and saw a tenderness she didn't deserve. "You are beautiful. I don't see the scars he left on you, I see the marks of a woman that would put herself on the line for complete strangers, willing to do all she could to keep them from the hands of a twisted mind." His hands wandered down her body, resting at the curve of her back pulling her to him til the only thing that separated them was his clothes. And her fear.

"I see the marks of a woman that would and did put not only her life but her soul on the line so her sister wouldn't face what she did." His hands cupped her face as her hands went to his arms, "I see the woman I love." Her eyes widened at his words, "Wha..? When did you…" He smiled, kissing the tip of her nose, "Since that night I rushed over to a unconscious woman in the park. All I wanted to do when I saw her, was hold her and keep her safe."

"If you'll let me," he whispered against her lips. She opened her mouth and started to speak when he put his hand up, shaking his head. "No, don't say anything right now. I know you not ready to say it. But I had to tell you." She nodded; she knew she couldn't say the words yet. But after tonight, the way he touched her, made her feel, she knew she was halfway there to falling in love with him.

She didn't say anything, letting her actions speak for her. She pushed his jacket off his shoulders, letting it fall behind him. Slowly, she reached for the hem of his shirt, tugging it till it creeped up his muscled stomach, but before it reached his chest, his hands stopped hers. "Don't. Don't cross this line if you don't plan to stay with me." The emotion in his eyes and voice shook her down to her soul and made her aware of two things. That he wanted her like he did and as bad as he did made her feel something she had never felt, and that he had been hurt in the past by someone he loved. Maybe as much as she had loved Bruce at one time. But she didn't want to think about Bruce or whoever it was that hurt Pete like they did. She wanted him, and only him, even if she only got him for tonight. Cause tomorrow when she had to face who and what she was, there would be plenty of time for regret.

She pulled the shirt up and over his head, caressing his bare chest and arms. He pulled her into his arms, carrying her the short distance to the bed and laid her back on it. He stood at the foot of the bed, wearing only a pair of drawstring pants. She looked up at him with a hunger in her dark eyes that made him want her more. He pulled them down and off his legs leaving him bare to her gaze.

She felt a moment of trepidation at the sight of his bare body. And at the size of him, he was big and muscled every where. He was bigger than she thought he was and felt a curl of fear wrap around her.

Maybe he didn't know she wasn't experienced at this, she started to tell him when he moved. He climbed on the bed on all the fours, slowly making his way up her body and she forgot her own name much less what she thought she needed to tell him. He crawled her up her body, slowly making his way up to her face, his mouth taking hers in a passionate kiss as he reached his destination. She moaned at the taste of him, running her hands over his arms, biceps and up his shoulders, holding on as he shifted, taking her with him. He ran his hands over her body, pausing at her hips then moving down her thighs taking them in his hands and wrapped them around his hips, making her straddle him. She shuddered and moaned as she felt his tip press against her. His hands left her thighs, moving as one held her hips in place while the other moved up her side and cupped the side of her breast, flicking it with his thumb watching with satisfaction as it beaded into a tight nub in front to his eyes. His hand holding her hips steady, wandered around her front, caressing her hipbones in a sensual manner before his hand wondered lower, pausing at the curls that veiled her. His hand wandered lower, brushing against the bundle of nerves that heightened her pleasure, she gasped and arched into his touch, bringing him closer to the part of her he wanted most. But he wasn't done yet; he wanted her to know who took her tonight. He wanted her to cry out his name and know who it was that brought her to release.

His fingers moved further brushing against her entrance before moving. She gasped as his fingers slid inside her, making her moan as he moved and curled them inside her. Bring her building release closer to the edge. She arched against his hands, moving her hips along to the rhythm his hand was moving to. His lips wondered from her breast, and kissed their way up to her mouth, "Who's with you right now?" She looked up at him with wide eyes, "Who's the one bringing you to the edge," she gasped, "You."

He moved his hand faster, his fingers furling into the spot that would bring her over the edge, "Say it. Say my name, Jane. Tell me who it is that's making you come," his fingers furled inside of her, hitting the spot she need, she arched and cried out, "You, Peter. You're the one that's making me come," She sat in his arms panting as her body came down from the high he brought her to.

She stirred, looking up at him with dazed eyes, bringing him a flush of pride and satisfaction that he could bring her to that. She kissed him, taking his lips in a hungry, fierce kiss as her hand wandered down between them, taking him in hand. He groaned into her mouth as she stroked him in a firm grip. She moved closer, taking him in hand bringing him to her entrance. He brought her hand away, bring it to his mouth, kissing her palms, bring her arms around his neck, cupping her hips in his hands, he brought her to him and he took her mouth as his tip dipped into her, taking her breath away. Before she could adjust to him pressing inside her, he groaned and thrust his hips forward bringing his full length inside her. She stifled her gasp, but couldn't stop herself from stiffening at the sudden pain as he broke threw her barrier. He sat still for a long moment, he pulled back to look into her eyes, his face shocked. He took her hands in his, bringing them both to his mouth, kissing her palms tenderly, laving them as her body adjusted to his.

After a few minutes, she felt herself adjust and moved her hips forward slightly, when she felt no pain or discomfort she continued to move forward, starting a hesitant, but increasingly confident rhythm. He gasped into her palm at her moves, he raised his head and looked at her, she smiled at him and nodded, tightening her legs around his hips. He brought her arms around his neck, and took her hips in his hands, loving how such a delicate woman could have such strength. He thrust upward, bringing him deeper inside her. She moaned at his movement, clutching him to her as her hips arched against his, thrusting deep into her, bringing her closer to the edge. His hands traveled up her back and neck and into her hair, holding her in place for his kiss her as he thrust into her body.

He growled at the feel of her wet body tightening around his, making him want more. His hands clutched her hips, bringing her roughly to him, smiling at her cry of pleasure as he thrust deeper and harder in her.

Jane writhed in his grasp, she felt like he was hitting every nerve and pleasure point in her body as his pace sped up. She arched into him and cried in his mouth, "Pete, please. I'm so close. Please." That was all he needed, he thrust harder in her, and touched the nerves were they joined and groaned low in his throat when she threw her head back and cried out her release.

She felt something inside her shatter and she threw her head back, crying out as her release washed over her, making him come with her, she gasped and arched into him, shuddering as she felt his release spill into her. She gasped and went limp in his arms as she came down from her pleasure-induced high. He panted heavily into her throat as his release shuddered threw him. He laid her down back down on the bed when he caught his breath, going with her. She curled up on her side, taking him with her, smiling when she felt his warm body spoon up behind hers.

Enveloping her into his heat as their bodied cooled in the cool night air. After a few minutes he stirred and slowly pulled away. She followed him, wrapping her legs round his. Her arm draped over his chest, she looked up at him with wide eyes, "Stay. Stay the night with me, Pete."

He smiled back at her and nodded, curling up with her under the warm blankets in the cold night air. They laid in one another's arms, listening to the other's heart beat and breathing slow down as their exhaustion caught up with them. Both feel asleep with a sense of peace neither had felt in a long time.

* * *

Pete groaned as the bright sunlight came threw the blinds of the room. He laid his arm out, intent to pull Jane to him to shield him from the bright sun, only to come away empty. His head went up and saw Jane was gone and so was her service weapon, jacket and shoes. He ran his hand absently over the sheets on her side of the bed, feeling the cool linen under his rough hands. She had been gone for a while for her side of the bed to be cold, he vaguely remembered her going to work this morning, he must have went back to sleep after she go up. He grinned as he remembered last night and this morning before she left for work; the way she woke him up and how beautiful she looked this morning on top of him, the sun coming threw the window illuminating her making her cooper skin glow and her dark hair shine in the early morning light. He got up and saw a folded-up piece of paper taped to the dresser mirror. He walked over to it and took it off the mirror, opening it.

_Pete,_

_I left for work after you fell back asleep this morning. I tired you out, didn't I? If your awake in the next hour or so, the coffee should still be fresh. Call me when you get up, maybe we could meet up for lunch this afternoon. Or maybe dinner and dessert later on tonight._

_Jane_

He grinned at the note and set it back down on the dresser. He pulled his clothes on and made the bed before peeking out her door to see if Sam or Randi were up and about. When he saw neither, he walked out the door and down to his truck. He called Jane's phone and told her he couldn't meet her for lunch, he had to go in in the next thirty minutes to start a twelve hour shift.

He pulled up to his apartment building and went inside. He ate a quick meal and was in the shower before something occurred to him that didn't before and it hit him like a ton of bricks. They didn't use a condom. Last night or this morning.

* * *

It was a day shy of a full week when Randi got a call on the test results. When the doctor told her the results she went down to her knees in dizzying relief.

Jesse looked up from the glass he was cleaning at the sound of the bar door opening. Randi stood there, shaking as she looked at him across the room. She walked hesitantly to the bar and sat down on the stool in front of him. She cleared her throat and looked up at him, her green eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "I-uh-I got the test results back." He nodded, inhaling sharply. He must not be the father since she was in tears. She was having to start back at square one, something she feared since there was no other leads. He looked up at the feel of her hand on his face, her thumb touching his cheek and coming back wet. He didn't know he was… she smiled at him.

"Hi, Daddy." He looked at her with shocked eyes, "You mean the test says…" She nodded, smiling, "You're the father, Jesse." Her smiled faded, "Are you okay with that? Cause I understand-" She didn't finish as he rushed around the bar and took her face in his hands, taking her lips in a kiss the reached all the way down to her toes.

She kissed him back with equal passion, pulling his head closer to her, running her hands threw his thick hair and over his shoulders as she ran her hands over his shoulders and neck. They broke away, panting leaning into one another as they fought for air. Randi ran her hand threw his hair, making him look up at her. She took a deep breath and took a chance on something she had been wanting to do for a while now.

"Jesse, do you feel this? Like I do?" He pulled back to look into her eyes, "You mean this thing going on between us?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I-I was wondering, do-do you want to see where this goes? I mean, if you don't want to I understand." He stopped her with his hand to her lips, smiling down at her. "Yeah, I'd like that. I wanted to see where this goes since the day I went with you to the ultrasound. Hell, I think maybe even sooner than that. I'm just glad you want to too." She smiled back at him. "So, what do we do? Go on a date or something?" He smirked at her, "I think we both know how dating goes, Ren." She smiled, liking the sound of the family nickname coming from him, then shook her head sheepishly, "Actually…I don't."

He frowned, "You don't know what?" She looked down at their joined hands, "About dating. I've never dated much at all. I can remember going on all of four dates since I turned fifteen." He gaped at her, "Whaat? Why?" She shook her head, "I saw how my parents' relationship was, it started out good, and then it went down hill. I was afraid of history repeating itself so I never really tried to date. You know?" He nodded his head in understanding, "Yeah, I understand. We'll just take it as it goes." Then he did something she didn't expect, he crouched down before her and pulled her shirt up over her stomach, the slight bump starting to become obvious without clothes covering it, and kissed it, "Hi baby."

"Damn my hormones," she thought as she felt her eyes tear up at his words. But their moment was broken when the sound of the office door slamming open and Two-Bit voice's coming down the hall-"Hey, Jess can you take a look at the books I think I-whoa!" They broke apart and she pulled her shirt down, feeling her face heat up with embarrassment. Two-Bit looked stunned, then a slow grin came over his face. "Well, well. I take it you two are over your little fight. Cause, if that's how she acts when she's mad I hate to see her happy!" Jesse cleared his throat and gave a shy smile, "Actually, Dad we're uh, kinda celebrating." He gave them a puzzled look, "What ya celebrating?" He grinned at him, "Say hi, Grandpa." Two-Bit's eyes bulged out then he went white, and hit the floor with a thud, unconscious.

* * *

Over the next few days Jane and Peter were playing phone tag, always missing the others call. Till the day after Johnny's birthday; that morning something possessed Jane to stop it and go over to Pete's and talk to him. She got up, showered and dressed before calling Pete's phone to see if he was home. Of course he wasn't, so Jane went straight to the source. Pony and Wendy's house. And that was were she was pulling into, and to her relief, his truck was in the driveway. Along with half of the gang there was as well. But she had to talk to him, if it wasn't for the fact he called her as much she called him, she would wonder if he was avoiding her. She got out of the car and walked up to the porch and knocked. Pony answered it and smiled in surprise at her when he saw her. "Jane, hey what brings you out here. We were all just about to sit down to lunch, care to join us?" She walked after him and shook her head, "Naw, I ate before I came here. Is Pete around? I need to talk to him." He gestured to the kitchen, "Eating a quick bite in the kitchen before he has to hurry back off to the hospital." She smiled at him, "Thanks."

She walked into the kitchen and greeted all the guys and Cooper and Meg as they all sat round the huge kitchen table. Pete was bringing is plate over to sink when he caught sight of her. He smiled at her timidly, "Hey, whatcha doing out this way?" She smiled nervously at him, "I heard you might be out this way and wanted to see you." She looked down at the ground, "And I need to talk with you." Pete went still at those words, he gestured to the back door off from the kitchen, "Why don't we talk on the back porch to talk."

They walked off to the screened porch and shut the door behind them, giving them a measure of privacy. That was til Steve and Soda got twin mischievous looks on their faces. Meg looked at them and shook her head, "Uh-uh, you two. You're too old to be listening at the door like a couple of teenagers eavesdropping on their big brother's phone calls." Darry chuckled at the image and remembered a time or two when the two clowns had done just that. They pouted good-naturaledly and sat back down, eating the rest of their lunch.

Darry, Soda and Steve left to go back to work while Meg, Lan stayed to spend the day with Wendy. Pony was washing up the dishes. The silence was nice as the women sat at the table to savor their coffee.

It was silent for a few more minutes when they heard loud arguing coming from the back door, a few seconds later Jane came tearing out with Pete hot on her heels. He grabbed her arms, both oblivious that they had company. "Jane, will you stop, dammit and tell me why you aren't concern about this!" She turned into him, a flurry of emotions crossed her face. "Because we don't have to worry about it okay, Pete? Now drop it!" He growled, "I won't drop it. Now dammit, woman why aren't you freaking out over the fact you might be pregnant!"

Everyone went completely still at those words, Pony's mouth was dropped open, and Wendy looked like she was going to be ill. She turned to him, her eyes shone with a indescribable emotion, she jerked her arm out from his grasp, "Cause I can't have kids, Pete!" His eyes widened, she nodded, her voice quiet when she spoke, "I was in a accident when I was eleven and it made me barren. I can't have kids, not even with invitro or surrogacy." Her eyes shone with tears and whispered in a broken voice, "Now you know. Now you know all of my secrets, even my darkest ones. And now you know why I can't see you anymore." Her voice was thick with emotion, "You deserve someone that isn't a scarred, crippled woman. Someone that can give you those babies you want." She turned and ran out the front door. Pony cleared his throat, breaking the silence and brining Pete's attention to him. Pete flushed bright red when he realized not only his parents but his aunts, had heard the exchange. He gestured to the door, "Go after her, son." He nodded and raced to the front of the house and out the front door, just in time to see Jane pull out of the driveway and roared down the country road.

The twenty minute drive took Jane ten minutes to get back home. When she got there, she called and told her captain she wasn't feeling well and was taking the remainder of the day off. He didn't push her on it, between her collar rate being as high as it was and no recent cases coming up, he let it slide and told her to take the remainder of the day off.

She shut the phone and tossed it on the coffee table and sat down on the couch, unsure what to do. She sat there for what felt like hours before she raised her head from her hands, she saw the manila folder sitting on the corner of the end table, still waiting for her to read it. She looked at the clock and saw it would be a couple of hours before either Sam or Randi came back. And Randi might not be coming back any time soon tonight since she was dropping the bomb on Jesse today about the results. She picked up her phone and turned it off, then picked up the file and opened it and began to read it.

* * *

_Thank you for your reviews and patience. I'm working on the next chapter and hopefully-knock wood- can get it done and sent out soon. Sorry it's taking so long on getting them out. _


	29. Chapter 29

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively._

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The next couple of days was a tail spin for Pete. Jane wouldn't answer her phone, or his messages. He left so many calls he nearly blew up her phone, still she wouldn't call or answer. So he did the only thing he could think of- he went to Sam. He had the day off and as soon as he woke up, he called Ben and asked where Sam was that day. And that was were he stood now; outside of Applegate's Furniture store. Ben said that Randi was moving down here permanently so she and Jesse could share custody of the baby when she was born. He had to admit; it made better sense to live within a thirty minutes of one another than living four states away to share custody.

She was moving into the old Miller house a block away from Darry and Cooper's place.

The house was left to Jane and Sam's mothers when their grandmother died, but neither wanted it and neither did Jane or Sam after hearing about what happened in it, so they offered it to Randi.

Apparently living in a former murder house didn't affect her. Then again she was from New Orleans; she probably had seen and heard of scarier stuff.

He walked in the store when he saw Sam's truck in the parking lot and looked around the open area for the tall blonde and redhead. He found them over in the children's furniture section looking at cribs. He walked over and heard Randi say, "I wonder why Jane didn't want to come, she said earlier in the week she would be more than happy to come with us to pick out the crib and stuff." Sam shook her head, "Its cause her and Pete broke up." Randi gasped, "What? Why, they seemed to be fine." Sam shook her head, "All she said was she broke things off with Pete. She wouldn't say anything other than that. Then she locked herself in her room, pouring over some file she had with her."

Pete felt his heart clench at those words and wanted to kick his own ass. He should have just left it be, accepted it when she said they didn't have to worry about her being pregnant. No, he had to keep poking at it till she told him. It didn't matter to him if she couldn't have children. Hell, that's why the adoption and foster care system was in play. And that's what he would tell her the next time he saw her. That is, if he could get her to answer her damn phone. Which brought him back to the matter at hand. He walked the last couple of feet to them and cleared his throat, "Hello, ladies. I hope I'm not interrupting anything." They both turned from the crib they were looking at and turned to face him. Neither one showed surprise he was seeking them out. Sam's face was sympathic, her pale blue eyes light with understanding while Randi's were dark with empathy. Sam gave a half-hearted smile, "I had a feeling you would be here. Me and Ren are going to lunch after here. Why don't you join us?" Randi nodded, "And let's see if there's anything to get you and Jane back on." She gave a knowing grin, "I have a feeling the last week or so you were the reason why she had an extra spring in her step."

Sam continued threw the furniture store with Ren and Pete in tow as they looked over furniture to go in Randi's new house. It didn't surprise her Ren finally admitted defeat and got rid of her old decrypt furniture from her apartment. Her mother had told her when they all went to Randi's apartment last night to start to pack up some of her things, they saw her furniture was literally falling apart. She had bought it at a second-hand store back when she first moved in and was so proud of her new place and everything she couldn't stand to part with any of the old junk. Now she had no choice, Al informed them both that when he went to pick up one of the kitchen chairs, it literally broke away in his hands. She laughed till her sides hurt at the image, and then laughed even harder at the annoyed expression on Ren's face when she found out none of her stuff was worth making the cross country trip.

They continued looking threw the store, making notes of certain pieces Ren liked, Pete making suggestions and laughing at the story about why Randi was having to shop for brand new furniture. An hour later they pulled away in their respective trucks to lunch and the manager promising her new stuff delivered in the next couple of days.

They pulled into the empty Dingo parking lot and got out and went in. A lone man at the counter and a woman with a toddler in a booth was all there was in the diner. They went to a corner booth to the far side of the diner, were they had a amount of privacy and sat down. A couple of minutes later, Curly came up to their table, pad and pencil in hand. They ordered their drinks and gave their order, waiting till he left before any of them spoke. Sam was the first to break the silence, "We know Jane broke things off with you, Pete. The question is why." He shook his head, resting his head in his hands before speaking in a strained voice. "Yesterday she came by Dad's house, looking for me. I thought she was going to tell me she was pregnant or something." Both women's jaws dropped at his words, Randi spoke carefully, knowing this was unchartered territory. "Why did you think that?" He flushed and muttered, "Last week, we um..slept together. And it wasn't till I got home the next morning I realized I didn't use a condom and forgot to ask if she was on the Pill. So I tried to call her and ask her. Well, we kept missing one another till a couple of days ago when she came by dad's and wanted to talk. I asked her about it, she said we didn't have to worry." Sam had a feeling where this was going, "But that wasn't the end of it. Was it?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I was freaking out that she was so calm about it, so I kept asking her why she wasn't worried, finally she told me why." He fell quiet when Curly brought their drinks orders back out. He waited till he was out of sight and let out a heavy sigh, "She said she was in a accident when she was a kid and it caused her to become barren. Said she couldn't ever have kids of her own. Then she told me we shouldn't see one another." He swallowed thickly, "That I could do better than a scarred, crippled woman that couldn't have kids." Sam let out a shaky sigh and nodded, her eyes dark with sadness, "Yeah. That don't surprise me, Pete." He looked at her oddly, "Why doesn't it?" She shook her head, "Cause the last time she had to tell a guy she was seeing she couldn't have kids, he dropped her and made her feel like she was less of a woman cause she couldn't have any." His eyes narrowed to slits at that while Randi let out a low growl, "Are you talking about who I think you are, Sam? Cause if you are I think I need to make a detour on the way to the house. Like back to Savannah to whup his ass."

Pete frowned, "What the hell is she talking about?" Sam let out a heavy breath, "What all do you know about Jane's life back in Savannah?" He shrugged, "Not much, just what you told me and some of what she told me, I asked her one time if she ever dated back home she said she had a serious relationship at one time but it didn't last long."

Sam sighed and looked him in the eye, "She had more than a relationship with this man, Pete. When we were in college, Jane had a steady boyfriend. They dated for nearly two years. Well, about six months before we were do to graduate, he asked her to marry him and she said yes." His eyes went wide, she never told him she was engaged, or that they had dated for two years. She always made it out to be a college fling more or less.

She nodded, "I can see by your expression, she never told you the full story." She shook her head and continued, "Well, about three months before the wedding, they started talking about children. She wanted them and so did he, they planned to start trying a year into their marriage. The accident she told you about, happened when we were eleven. We were on our way to the grocery store to pick up a couple of things for Thanksgiving dinner that was a couple of days away. Mom and Aunt Val was working at the diner about a block from our apartment, so we thought we would be okay." She shook her head, "God we were stupid. A couple of guys dragged us into a alley and jumped us. Jane ran for help across the street to the store we're going into, a car pulled out of nowhere and hit her as she was crossing."

She shook her head, tears glistened in her darkened eyes, "She went flying into the hood and landed on the windshield. Bastard didn't even stop to see if she was alright when she rolled off the car and landed in the street. A couple of good Samaritans saw her and ran over to her, she was still conscious enough to tell them about the guys jumping us. By the time the ambulance got her to the hospital she had slipped into a unconsciousness, we later found out she had slipped into a coma."

He shook his head in shock, "How bad was she?" Sam was silent as she wiped the tears from her eyes; Randi put a arm around her shoulder and took up where she left off, "Bad. She didn't wake up for a whole month. It broke both her legs bad, they had to put them back to together with pins in the knees and ankles. And it messed up her back, two vertebrae's needed to be repaired with surgery. She was paralyzed from the waist down for a year before she could regain use of her legs."

"She had a bad concussion and it cause her to have internal bleeding. They stopped the bleeding in time, but they told her it damaged her reproductive organs, said kids might not be a possibility when she got older." He shook his head in shock and dismay, which explained the scars he saw on her back that night and the faint ones she saw on her ankles and the sides of her knees the next morning.

Sam composed herself and took back up were she left off, "Back to Bruce, her ex. The next day she scheduled a appointment with a doctor; she was hoping the doctor that told her in New York was wrong, or that time was what she need to heal." She shook her head, "He told it wasn't possible, the damage was already done. When she asked about invtiro or surrogacy-" She shook her head, "It wasn't possible, told her she wouldn't be able to conceive or carry children, there was just too much damage and scarring. She called Bruce up the next day and met him over at his house and told him what the doctor said." Her eyes flashed, making them look like a blue flame, "The little bastard called her white trash and said he was glad it came out before he was stupid enough to marry her." Both Pete and Randi made a sound of rage at those words. "I knew there was a reason I didn't like that bastard," Randi said threw clenched teeth, trying to keep her temper under control.

Sam shook her head, "Yeah, well me neither but I always held my tongue when she started getting serious about him, I figured he'd show his true color and she'd drop him." She shook her head angrily, "I just didn't know she had to get hurt in the process."

Pete stiffened, "What do you mean, 'hurt in the process'?" Sam went still and mentally kicked herself for letting that slip, Jane had asked her to never tell anyone about it. Now it looked like she might have to. Ren looked over at her with narrowed green eyes, "Spill it, Sam. You already slipped might as well slip completely." Sam sighed, "Alright, but this doesn't leave the table," she looked over at Randi with icy eyes, "And no sneaking off to beat the holy hell out of him." Randi made a sound of frustration then nodded her head, "Fine. But I can't make any promises I won't let someone else do my light work." Sam rolled her eyes but continued, "Well, you know Jane. When she gets mad enough, her temper can rival my Daddy's any day of the week."

She smirked at them, "And can seriously break medieval on those that make her mad, especially when they think cause she's so small and tiny she can't fight or she's weak. And he had her mad that day."

Her smirk softened to a sad look, "Hurt and mad. She lost her temper and hauled off and bitch-slapped him and said she was glad that it all came out too. And that she had to be the blindest and stupidest person on earth not to have seen him for what he really was and she had to be crazy to have wanted kids with him."

She clenched her jaw and whispered angrily, "That was when he hit her. He backhanded her and slammed her into the wall hard enough to break the drywall. He called her names and said some things that no matter what he was feeling at that moment, couldn't be taken back. She kicked him in the boys and ran out of there. The only reason I know about it was because I came back to our dorm just as she was coming in." She let out a sigh, "She told everyone they had a fight and called the wedding off. She hasn't talked to him since."

* * *

Jane looked around her room and let out a sigh. It was a mess, then again she wasn't surprised after being in here for nearly a week and three days and only leaving to go to work, eat and bathroom breaks. She had been right when she looked into her dad's records. His medical allergy had been known by his parents. The only problem was, when she looked into where Cade was when dad died, the bartender and a couple of old-timers remembered him being there all night and it was his wife that came to the bar in tears to tell him that her Dad had died. She found another discovery when she went digging to find out how he died of a know allergy, she found out her grandmother couldn't and wouldn't have been the one to give him the dose.

She looked down at the paper she found in the City Hall records and smiled, it was her parents' marriage license. The night her father died, her grandmother was at the courthouse filing paperwork saying she had given permission for her son to marry Jane's mother, legally her parents had been married when her dad died; leaving Jane to legally able to claim any assets her grandmother left her in her will. And it had been a lot, combined with twenty-five years of interest and a college fund the Cades had started when her father was born, she had a lot of inheritance.

But it didn't change much, her father was still dead, her paternal grandmother was dead and she would never know what she was like after her dad died, and her grandfather was a dead shumuck that should have had his ass kicked for what he did.

She didn't even know the first thing about how she was going to explain all of this to her mother. She set the folder down and looked around the room before getting up and walking around the room. She let out a heavy sigh as she thought over all she had learned in the last few days as well as the last couple of months. As much as she wanted to ask Sam for help and advice, she couldn't. This was something she started, she had to finish it. And she couldn't and wouldn't involve her family. Because the night before her suspicions had been confirmed. Someone knew she was looking into the past and they wanted her to stop. Someone knew she knew about her dad. Someone knew she found out that her father didn't die of a accidental allergy dosage. They knew that she knew her father's death was no accident. Johnny Cade had been murdered.

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_Thank you for your reviews and patience. I'm working on the next chapter and hopefully-knock wood- can get it done and sent out soon. _


	30. Chapter 30

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. Sorry it's taken so long to get these last few chapters out; for some strange reason, every time I'd get on my Word file, it kick me right back off and sometimes I'd have several pages to have to go back and resave or rewrite._

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Chapter Twenty-Eight

Ben was up on the scaffold when he heard someone calling his name. He looked down and saw one of the guys hollering up at him, "Yeah, Vince?"

"Darry said to come down, you got a visitor that needs to talk to ya!" He grinned at that, it had to be Sam. He walked down the scaffold and down to the ground, following behind Vince to the office trailer. When he got there, he saw Jane's Mustang instead of Sam's truck. He shrugged it off as they drove together. Till he got inside and saw Darry and Jane standing in the office.

"Hey. What's up, you need something Darry?"

He shrugged, "Naw, Jane does. I'll leave you two to talk." He pulled his hard hat on and went out side, leaving it just them in there. "What's up, Jane? Is something wrong with Sam?" She shook her head, "No, but I need to ask a favor." He looked at her with suspicious eyes.

"What kind of favor?" She let out a heavy breath, "A big one. I need to hire some guys to do some work for me, you know of any that wouldn't mind making some extra cash?" He shrugged, "Yeah, I know some guys." She looked up at him from her stance, "I'm talking about ex-military. Guys from your old team or some you might know that are trust-worthy and won't be swayed by bribery." He walked up to her, "What's going on, Jane? Why do you need to hire ex-military to do some work, you can get any fool off the street to do work, you hire ex-military for body-guarding and surveillance."

It hit him then, "You need to hire protection, don't you?" She was silent, but nodded. She was quiet for a few minutes longer before she spoke, "What I tell you Ben; can not leave this trailer. We clear?" He hesitated but nodded, if this had to do with Sam, he would be the one playing bodyguard to her, not some dumb-ass that wanted to get in her pants.

"Yeah, how many do you need? I know of a few guys that are good, decent guys that do this line of work now and then." Her forehead pulled in consternation for a minute before she gave him a number. "At least five, I need them to watch the guys and their families." She let out a heavy breath, "And I figure between the two of us, we can keep an eye out for Sam and Ren." Now she really had him curious; and concerned. "Why?" She gestured to him and she walked to a part were there was now sign of them in line of the windows or the door. "No one knows this, Ben. No one."

He nodded. She ran a hand threw her hair and let out a heavy sigh, "About three weeks ago, I decided to look into dad's medical records. But it was about a week after I got the file that I finally was able to really look at it." She looked up at him with dark eyes, "I found out threw the initial report that dad was allergic to a commonly used pain and antibiotic combination, and that it was given to him _accidentally_ because it wasn't in his file that he was allergic to it." She closed her eyes and ran her hands threw her hair again, "I found out, that the allergy was in his medical records." He shrugged, "So, maybe the nurse administrating it made a mistake." She gave him a doubtful look, "I don't think so, Ben. This is a commonly used medicine; a nurse would remember a patient being allergic to it when it was in their file." She looked up at him with fierce eyes, "Besides, someone has been threatening me the last week or so to let it go, so that tells me that it wasn't an accident."

"My dad was murdered and someone has spent the last twenty-five years covering up. And someone knows I know and now their trying to shut me up, I'm afraid their next move is to go after the guys or Sam to get to me."

* * *

Jesse squinted in the bright morning light and let out a groan. He moved on his other side away from the light only to find he couldn't. He looked down at his side and saw Randi curled up next to him, a smile gracing her features as her hand unconsciously cupping the slight bump that was starting to make its presence known. He looked around her bedroom, surprised at how fast she got the place in order. Earlier in the week he, and some of the gang had helped her get moved in and set up.

He curled around her, his hand resting over hers on her stomach, thinking about last night. When he went to leave, she walked him to the door and kissed him, one that made him hot and cold all at once. She broke away from him and then asked him to stay the night when he started out the door. While they didn't go past kisses and touching, they talked. Talked long into the night, til their eyes were both so heavy they couldn't keep them open a second longer and fell asleep next to one another in her bed, he knew last night as she drifted off to sleep in his arms, that she was it. She was the one.

Ben hung up the phone and let out a heavy sigh before looking over at Jane, "Bad news, Jane. I contacted some of the guys I've served with over the years, they either can't make it out in the next week like we need them to, or they got orders else where." She let out a heavy sigh, "So it's just us, huh?" He let out a heavy sigh, "Yeah, it looks that way." She walked over to the large antique armoire that sat in her room, and took a key from her pocket before opening the elaborate looking lock. "In that case, we're going in prepared."

His jaw dropped in surprise, instead of clothes or storage stuff, weapons were there. Hand guns of every caliber and size were strapped to the insides of the long doors, three shotguns, a saw-off shotgun and a broken down sniper's rifle was strapped to the back of the cabinet. Knives of every width and size sat on the felt lined bottom, drawers and doors. A set of throwing stars were tacked up on the inside wall as well as a couple of knives he knew were not issued anywhere outside of the military. But that was something he would get back to, he stood up from the floor and walked over to the open cabinet. "Is this yours and Sam's?" She chuckled, "Nope. This is all mine. Sam has one too, only hers is more guns than knives." He arched a brow at that; "You do know, this is just a hare bit excessive? Even by a SEALs standard." She rolled her eyes, as she started picking up knives and inspecting them before strapping them on, "This is nothing, my whole basement back in Savannah was armed to the teeth." She looked over at him and smirked, "Did you think I earned the name G.I. Jane by being meek and mild?" He shook his head, "No, but I'm starting to wonder if your really Johnny Cade's daughter. From what I heard, he would have freaked at this." She gave a wicked smile, "No, but I bet Uncle Dal would have been drooling over mine and Sam's gun and knives collection." She gave a shake of her head, loading a shotgun shell in the chamber, before flicking it closed and looked up at him, "Naw, I'm his daughter. But I'm also the granddaughter of a former Marine that- from what I heard over the years- could make John Cena look tame." She shrugged nonchalantly, "It's in my blood."

It was a week later, with much strategizing on both Ben and Jane's parts, they arranged a meeting at Pony's house for everyone; it was big enough to house them and was capable of being defended well should it need to be. It was on Friday afternoon, Alice, Patti and Annie had left for the annual Junior-Senior Trip while the two youngest Randles were on a plane with their mother to visit a elderly aunt. Later that day they called Pony and asked to arrange a 'family' meeting at his house with everyone that was in town. It was a mid-morning March day when the diverse line of cars came down that country road that led to Pony and Wendy's farmhouse. Sam and Ren were the last one's to arrive, coming up on Ren's bike, their rifle cases slung over their backs, having just come from target practice when they were asked to come out.

Once everyone was inside, Jane and Ben began the meeting. "You all know that I called a meeting here." Everyone looked around the den, then back at her. She took the bag off her shoulder and pulled out a thick manila file. She set it on the end table next to her where all the guys were sitting. Darry opened the file, reading it silently to himself before looking up at them with a confused look on his face, "I don't understand, Jane. What is this; this looks like a police report." She nodded, "That's because it is, it's something I found; it's been covered up for twenty-five years, but I found the evidence." Two-Bit looked up from the file, "What evidence?" She let out a deep breath, "Evidence, that there was more to Dad and Uncle Dal's deaths. It wasn't bad luck or poor health. They were murdered."

A gasp went around the room, Steve stood up with a growl, "That's bullshit! Dal was gunned down by the cops for pulling that gun, and Johnny died cause him burning and breaking his back was too much for him!" She shook her head, "No, I wish that was the case, but it's not, Steve. I checked everything I looked at twice, the evidence all said the same thing, the cops back in '81 just didn't check the facts." A pained looked crossed her face, "Dad was in bad shape, but he wasn't dying, Steve." She walked over to Soda holding the file and took a sheaf of paper out of it; "According the original, Dad was in good enough shape for them to perform skin-grafts on him, and was a excellent candidate for a experimental surgery that would have repaired his spine and would have allowed him to walk again." She flipped threw the packet and pointed out to one, "Here is the agreement Isabella signed for him to have the surgery, as soon as his lungs were clear and there no risk of infection, they would have scheduled the surgery as early as that spring." She stopped and took a shuddering breath, her eyes bright with emotion. "But before that could happen, he was injected with a commonly used pain-&-antibiotic combination. It caused him to go into anaphylactic shock." Pony's eyes went wide as saucers, "He was allergic to it?" She nodded, "Yeah, he was. It was also in his medical records and was listed as cause of death was cardiac arrest caused by anaphylactic shock. But it wasn't an accident."

She looked over at Pete before speaking again, "I checked with Pete when I first came across it; this was a drug used very commonly back in the eighties and now." She shook her head, "There's no way a doctor or a nurse would have missed something like that in his file, I believe someone injected it in his IV while he was in the hospital and had it played off as a fluke or a accident by a incompetent nurse." Her eyes burned with anger and determination, "No one expected someone would look past the cover-up. He didn't think anyone would look into it; he figured who would look into the death of a Greaser kid; a kid that killed a Soc kid whose old man was 'a pillar of the community'." She snorted, "Even though the kid was no saint; I read over the police and coroner's report; he was a heavy drinker and smoker; by the time he was thirty he would have needed a new liver probably a oxygen tank to breathe out of."

There was a brief pause before Jane spoke again, "That wasn't the only thing we found out. After Sam did some digging into Uncle Dal's cause of death," She looked over at her cousin a slight pleading look on her face, "Ben dug alittle deeper and discovered some interesting stuff." She nodded to him, "Take it from here, Ben." He reached inside a old backpack and withdrew a semi-thick folder. He gave them a grim look, "This is a copy of the report Sam found, she came to me a few weeks back about the bullet forensics and I recognized the casing. After that, I decided to go further."

He gave her a apologetic look, but continued when she gave a shrug and nodded for him to continue, "Something about that bullet didn't set right with me, and when Jane came to me with her suspicions about how John died, I realized some things didn't add up." He let out a heavy breath before continuing, "Then I started asking around, and I found out there was a few guys that wouldn't have been a helluva lot richer if they were dead and out of the picture." He flipped threw the file and held up a grainy old mug shot of a face none of them had thought about in a long time, but at the same time knew well. "According to Jamie Brumly, his old man was into to a lot of things back in the old days, including gun running. And Dal and John were his best runners."

* * *

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, but in seconds erupted with gasps and loud explosive reactions. Soda jumped up with a snarl that looked out of place on his handsome, happy face. His eyes were hard and angry, a complete difference from their normal gentle and happy light brown. "That's a lie and complete bullshit!" Several of the kids went quiet at his words; it was rare for a swear word to pass Soda's lips. "Dal might have had his bad points, and Lord knows Johnny wasn't exactly a saint, but he was a good kid! They both were decent guys, they would have never run guns for Brumly! He's lyin!" Jane shook her head, "I'm afraid not Soda, I checked it out after Ben told me what he found. Finnis Brumly was brought in on multiple charges for gun and drug smuggling in the early eighties, the dates in the reports and what Jamie told Ben matched up. Dad and Uncle Dal barely escaped sting operations a couple of times when running for Brumly. Back in the day running guns brought in a lot of money, especially for a couple of kids." Ben took off were she left off, "Especially if they were trying to get a lot of money to start a new life. I talked a lot with Jamie over the last couple of weeks; he said based on what his old man told him, he would sometimes overhear them talking, they were trying to get money together so they could try and find Kate and Val. Then they would use the money to go under ground til the girls were of age, or go back to Savannah."

Darry narrowed his eyes, "I'm hearing a 'but' somewhere in this story, am I right?" Jane nodded, "Yeah, turned out Finnis wasn't the ring leader, but one of the soldiers. The number one guy decided since Dad and Uncle Dal were so good and smugglin' guns, he wanted to try them at drug smuggling. Cocaine to be exact."

The guys all drew a sharp breath, that was something they never touched, especially the hard stuff. Dal especially, the stuff he would see on the streets from the desperate junkies from his New York days were enough to convince him to never touch the stuff.

"When they wouldn't do it willingly, he tried to strong-arm them by having Two-Bit jumped by a couple thugs," Two-Bit went pale at that. It was a month before Dal, John and Pone were all up in Windrixville; he thought it was just a couple of idiots hopin he had some cash on him. Now he knew that wasn't the case. Ben shook his head and a amused smirk graced his face briefly before continuing, "But he didn't count on them being ballsy; they threatened to go to the cops if he tried that again, and that night they told Brumly they were done; they had enough money to buy themselves and the girls a train ticket and hide out in Savannah til they could come back."

Sam interrupted then, "That's right, the old place used to be a cotton and produce farm, that was how Granny Bridget was able to keep them afloat when Pawpaw Brian was sick."

Jane nodded, "Yeah, and I bet that was what they were counting on. But a week before they were able to leave, the thing with Windrixville came up with Pony." Ben picked back up, "So Johnny ran with Pony to keep them both safe and Dal was going to meet up with them and take Pony with them til they could get the police to listen to him, then Dal and John were going to disappear." It was quiet for a long time before anyone spoke and when they did, Two-Bit was abnormally quiet and reserved, "Why didn't they just go to the fuzz? I know half of them were itching to throw us in jail, but I would have thought they were itchin even more to get a couple of gun and drug smugglers off the streets. Drugs and guns were getting bad on the East Side in the old days."

Jane sneered, "Yeah except, when it is the cops, you got no where to go." Pony's eyes went wide, "The cops?! They were in on it?!" She nodded, "Yeah, Ben did some digging with the help of Jamie and found some things out; he was a uniform at the time that was dabbling in pot deals then made his way up to guns then coke. Now he's a high-ranking detective with a untarnished reputation, not even a whisper about a poor gun maintenance." She sighed and held up her file, "I backed up everything I saved and searched, it's been sent to a close friend of my in the D.A.'s office back in Savannah. So has Ben's." She sighed, "Til then, I can't touch him without hard-core evidence, if I go with what I have, a lawyer would shoot it full of so many holes it'll look like Swiss cheese." She let out a breath, "That's why I called you all here. Why Ben and me both did. He knows I'm on to him and wants to make sure I don't find anything else to pin on him. And he's willing to go to any lengths to keep it that way." Soda looked at her shrewdly, "Including going through us? That's why you called this meeting, to let us know that we might be in danger?"

She nodded, genuine regret in her dark eyes, "Yes. And I'm so sorry that my quest for answers was brought to your feet." It was quiet for a while, before a solemn Maddie spoke, "Do you think he'll make a try to kill you or one of us to keep it quiet?" Her eyes hardened, looking like twins pieces of black ice, "I _know_ he'll try it." A sinister smirk twisted her full lips, "I just can't say how successful he'll be."

They were all around talking, some were talking about anything to keep their minds off what had just been discussed, several of the guys were huddled in a corner talking to Ben and Jane, Sam and Ren standing off to the side, listening more than talking. Stunned that Jane and Ben went through all they did and found what they did. But she could understand her reasoning and wasn't all that hurt; they both had been trying to protect one another for years from things they didn't think the other one couldn't handle. And finding out your father was murdered and had been covered-up for the last twenty-five years was right up there. She was broke from her thoughts by the sound of a engine, a glance at Randi said she heard the same thing. She caught Pony's attention, "Hey Pone, are you expecting company?" He frowned and walked over to a window and peeked behind the blinds, "No, must be someone looking for a party, looks like half the Hell's Angels are out there."

Ben had tuned everything out when he heard Sam say she heard an engine, it was like he was waiting for something, then he heard it, a sound he heard a thousand times and more, one he knew was well as the sound of his heart beating. The hammer click of a gun.

He reacted and lunged at Pony, shoving him to the ground just as the world around them flew apart by the sounds of gunfire and screams.

* * *

Chaos erupted as gunfire filled the room and Jane hit the ground and started barking orders as she belly crawled over to where Wendy was, "Get down on the ground! NOW!" She was crouched protectively over Meg and Lan, her eyes wide with fear, she crawled over to her and yelled over the gunfire, "Get everyone down to the basement and keep them there!" She knew from Pete, that the basement was fully stocked with provisions for a natural disaster. After a tornado touched down in the area a couple of years ago- nearly taking Steve's house with it- Pony and Wendy had the basement finished and capable of housing them all in the likelihood of another tornado. She nodded and began to gather up as many of them she could reach and began to call them to her, Cooper saw what she was doing and began to call the others to her as Wendy led the way to the kitchen that would led them down to the basement. Jane crawled over to were Sam and Ren were and grinned at what she saw. Both were cursing under their breath and were putting their rifles together.

She pulled off her jacket and began taking her automatics from her shoulder holsters as they began loading the rifles, she looked over to were Pony was lying on the ground, and to her surprise, several of the guys were holding a gun or –to her complete shock-a bow and arrow. She glared over at Ben who was taking a semi-automatic out of his holster. "What happened to not involving them, Shepard?" Pony looked up at her with a hard glare, "When these sonofbitches came onto to my property and tried to kill my family, Cade!" He turned and knocked out a window and began firing; she knew from the shouts three of his bullets hit their mark. She looked over at Sam who was grinning, "Damn, I knew I liked him for a reason!"

She grinned back and ran to a window and pulled the gun back and knocked the window out with the butt of the gun, firing off a round. She heard a man's scream and heard more glass breaking and saw Sam was doing the same and was shooting as well. She fired the gun twice before ducking out of the way and looked to Ren and shouted above the noise, "Randi, get the rest of them to the basement! And stay down there!" She shook her head, "I ain't leaving, Janie. This is my fight too; they came down here and threatened my family and my man. I'm having their balls for breakfast!" Before she could protest she was leading some of the older kids down the stairs, several of them protesting the whole time.

Sam ducked underneath the window after firing a round, hitting her target with deadly precision. She glanced over at Jane and Ben and saw they too were shooting from various positions. Several of the guys were in the same positions they were in, including to her surprise, Soda and Pony. She saw something out of the corner of her eyes and turned, gun firing out of instinct, Randi ducked in time and looked up from her position on the floor, glaring at her, "Dammit, don't shoot me! Shoot the bastards outside, Sam!" She glared back at her, "What the hell are you doing up here, I thought Jane ordered you to stay downstairs?"

She scoffed, "Yeah and when have I ever listened to either one of you when it comes to ordering me around?" Jane let out a growl before she fired again, ducking underneath the window, glaring at her, "Never; I don't know why I thought you would listen now. Maybe because you're pregnant!" She grinned at her and crawled over to her and lifted up her sweater, a black camisole underneath it, "Something a friend of mine in Tactics Force has been trying out. It looks like a tank top or a camisole but is a extremely-light weight bullet-proof vest. It can stand up to virtually anything; he's been trying it out with every ballistic out there, it even holds up to hollow-points." She pulled her sweater back down and patted her belly, "My baby girl is safe as Fort Knox with this puppy."

She shook her head at her, Ren looked over at Pony, "Hey Pone, you guys got a attic roof?" He ducked down from his position and looked over at her, nodding, "Yeah, we had a fire escape route built into the roof with a collapsible ladder; Wendy had it installed so no matter were we were, we could get out threw the roof if the house caught fire." She grabbed up her rifle, "In that case, that's were I'll be." She looked over at her and Jane and pulled something out of her coat pocket, "Here, I've been meaning to ask you guys to test these things out with me, their handset radios that fit in the ear, Jimmy's been tinkering with our radios; it's supposed to go over a mile longer than our regulations ones. Now's a good a time as any."

Both fitted the headset over their ears and turned them on, "Can you hear me?" Both nodded, she grinned at them and looked over at Pony, "Hey, Pone; direct a girl to the roof if you please?" He gestured were it was located and took off, but saw out of the corner of her eye, saw both Ben and Pete giving her sisters a searing kiss before taking off in different directions, she knew by the footsteps Ben was right behind her. It didn't surprise her; both had the knowledge and experience in these kind of situations; they just might be the keys to keeping them all alive. As she made her way to the roof she let herself remember the last few seconds she had with Jesse as she led them down to the basement, they hadn't known one another long, but he could already see she wasn't one to back away from a fight. And this was a fight. As she turned to leave, he stopped her and gave her a kiss that touched her all the way down to her soul. Right before she left he whispered to her, _"Come back to me, Red. Both of you."_ She was going to make damn good on her promise that she would.

Ben moved to Sam's side. He didn't say anything. He didn't know if he could without saying things that really didn't need to be said at that moment. He had gone into battle before but never had he fought for a reason like this. The reason he was fixing to go up on the roof with Randi and possible not come back down was currently crouched in front of him lining up targets and shooting with accurate aim. She turned to him. He saw in her eyes the indecision. If he stayed, someone in the house could very well be killed. If he went, he stood a chance of taking out a couple of the enemy but stood the chance of being killed too. He made his decision.

He cupped her jaw in his hand and kissed her with all he had. He let go and made a run for the stairs that led to the roof.

Ben jogged up the stairs were Pone said the roof escape was, a step behind Randi, he looked up at her from his position on the steps that led to the roof, "Randi, you need to stay here. You have a baby to think about-" She shook her head. "No. This is my fight too. My family that's under fire too." She turned and looked back at him, "When I discovered I was pregnant, the doctor told me there was a good chance I wouldn't have this baby but," she cupped her semi-flat stomach, "She's still here, she's a fighter. I'm not about to let her fight be in vain. Now I'm going onto that roof and taking me out a couple of sorry-ass punks. You gonna join me or not, Soldier Boy?"

He nodded at her, hiding the smile on his face behind her back. Damn, she had balls. Jesse was going to have his hands full with this one.

They saw dusk was setting and it was in their favor. They swung their rifles off their shoulders and took their positions at different ends of the roof. Both praying they would get off this roof in one piece. She set up her rifle and fixed the scope and looked through it, spying a target about to take aim at the window where she knew Two-Bit had been shooting out of. She let the cool icy indifference that took her over when she found it necessary to make a kill. She took aim and fired, moving onto her next target before the first one fell, hearing on the far side of the roof Ben doing the same.

Peter crouched beside Jane; he saw something he didn't see in her before. Her eyes normally warm were now as cold and hard as ice. A look in her face he had never seen before, and hoped never to see again. He was seeing the face that had made more than a few perps back up at that look in her eye; she fired a round and hit her targets with deadly precision, before turning back to him, her eyes looking slightly like normal, her voice pleading, "Pete, please get downstairs." She cupped his cheek in one hand, whispering hoarsely, "I'd never forgive myself if you were hurt over something I started. Please." He looked at her for a long minute before heaving a sigh and nodded. She smiled up at him and kissed him with a mix of passion and desperation, "I love you, Peter Pan Curtis." He winced at his full name, cupping her face in his hands , "I love you too. Don't you be a hero, Jane Valerie Cade."

She grimaced at her full name then gave a sigh of relief when she saw him run across the floor and disappear down to the basement.

Wendy looked up at the sound of pounding on the steel door at the top of the basement stairs, everyone tensed at the pounding. The door was heavy-duty steel, made to hold up to tornado winds, debris, and gunfire. She heard the pings as they shut the door to lock them in, the pounding increased and then she heard her son, "Wendy, Neverland is waiting!" The tension relaxed noticeably and she burst into tears and ran up the stairs, unlocking the door, letting her son in. She threw her arms around him in a hug and smiled, it had been a secret code she made up with him when he was little; 'Neverland is Waiting' that meant he was okay. She looked him up and down with anxious eyes. He was dirty and rumbled from crawling threw debris and dirt, but appeared fine. No cuts, bruises and -thank God- no bullet holes. He walked down the stairs, his mother practically attached to him, "What's going on out there, Pete? Is anyone hurt?" He shook his head, "As of right now, no one on our side is hurt and I don't know much of what is going on except Dad and the guys were still firing, Jane and Sam were too, and Ben and Randi went up on the roof to see if they could be of any help." He gave a weak grin, "Although judging by the shots and yells from outside, I think our side is winning."

Sam was firing off another round when she heard a shout and several yells, she looked up and saw Darry hit the ground, holding his arm, Jane was too far away to get to him and none of the guys could reach him, she went on instinct. She ran across the floor and pulled him up and out of the way just in time, gunshot peppered the spot he was lying in two seconds later. But as she pulled him back to the safety of the couch, she felt fire explode in her shoulder. She jerked back and felt fire enter her stomach, and she knew she had been shot. She went down with a thud, taking Darry with her; they were still in the line of fire, but she couldn't get herself to move, and didn't know if Darry could either.

She felt herself move, and knew by the sheer stubbornness alone, Darry had pulled them behind the safety of the couch. She felt him grab at the wound in her shoulder and cried out, it was the same shoulder she injured last time. Only this time she could feel the blood pumping steadily from both wounds, making her light-headed. She felt like she was in a tunnel, she could hear Darry talking to her, but couldn't make out the words, her vision darkened and as she lost consciousness, she caught sight of her cousin's stricken face.

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_Thank you for your reviews and patience. I'm working on the next chapter and hopefully-knock wood- can get it done and sent out soon. _


	31. Chapter 31

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Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. I took down this chapter and re-did it and put it back up.

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Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jane felt like time slowed down when she saw Sam arch from the force of the bullet hitting her shoulder, then her stomach as she went down, taking a wounded Darry with her.

Bullets peppered the area Darry had been standing in seconds before, she started to them, when gunfire erupted, making her duck to keep from being hit. She let out a low growl and turned back to the window, firing off in rapid session, hitting one in the head another in the throat. She ducked back down and saw Darry had pulled himself and Sam behind the safety of a couch. The icy anger she felt at Sam's shooting, turned into a inferno of anger and hatred; she clicked the headset she had in her ear, "Ren, you hear me?" A crackle then Ren's husky voice came over the line, "They got her didn't they?" she nodded, even though she couldn't see her; Ren had always been sensitive as to when one of her siblings had been hurt; it had been what saved them in the past, "Yeah." Jane cleared her throat, "Take'em down, Ren. If the bastard wants to play hard, I say we show him we play. Take their sorry asses out. NOW."

Ren looked up from her scope and caught Ben's attention, she mouthed, 'Sam' then gave a gesture to take out as many as he could. His blue eyes hardened to stone at that; he nodded jerkily and looked threw his scope, lining up a target. A anger he had never felt when he took a shot, went threw him. They hurt his woman; they were dead, they just didn't know it yet.

Jane looked out the window she was firing from, a grim smile on her face as she saw several men drop from shots fired from the roof. She let out a growl when she saw the remaining two standing hop into the SUV they came in, the engine turning over before roaring to life. They turned sharply and started down the long driveway, she ran to the door using her headset to Ren, "Stand down, Ren. Ben too. This fucker is mine."

She leaped over the overturned end tables and knick-knacks littering the floor, before throwing the door open. The SUV was almost at the end of the driveway, she took aim and blew out the back tires, causing the vehicle to swerve and half crash into one of the many trees lining the end of the driveway, before taking another shot, hitting the gas tank, making it immediately catch fire. In seconds it was engulfed in flames. The explosion rocked the ground, making the ones in both the living room and basement, shudder with the force of it. Jane ducked behind a post when the explosion rent the air, for several seconds all she heard was a ringing in her ears, when the ringing faded and she could hear once again, she stood up and let go of the post. When she could walk without falling, she walked back threw the door, seeing the men's shocked faces. But she saw something else in their faces, a grim satisfaction at her actions. She looked around at everyone, "Everyone okay?" They all nodded, some voicing their okays; but her attention soon was turned to the couch, she ran over to the back of the couch and sank to her knees beside Sam.

Darry was dirty and covered in blood, but to her horror and shame, she saw not all of it was his. He had wrapped his belt tightly around Sam's bicep under her bleeding arm, Darry had taken his flannel shirt off, leaving him in a undershirt, the flannel had been torn into strips, secured around both her shoulder and her middle. She quickly slipped her sweater off and began tearing it in strips, wrapping it over the bloody flannel bandages. But she saw both makeshift bandages were dripping with blood already. The bleeding hadn't slowed, despite the makeshift tourniquet Darry had wrapped around her wounds. She knew from paleness and clammy feel of her skin, Sam was going into shock.

History was repeating itself, only this time Sam might not make it out alive this time. She shook her head, lifting Sam's head into her lap, as she used her hands to try to stop the bleeding when the bandages showed no signs of slowing down. She looked up at the lined, stricken faces surrounding her. "Get Pete up here now, he might be able to stop the bleeding." Steve knelt down beside her, pushing the couch away, "Jane, it won't do any good." She shook here head, a sob escaping her throat, "Yes, it can. Get him up here."

She looked around them, tears running down her face, "Dammit, get him up here! He can save her! She's still breathing! Her heart is still beating! Get him up here!" She lifted her head, "Peter!" she screamed.

* * *

They all froze downstairs at Jane's scream. It wasn't a warning scream; it was one filled with fear and agony. Pete saw several of his aunts and mother, break down at her scream. He heard her scream again, "Pete, get up here! We need you!" He ran up the steps he was halfway up at her first scream and had the door slammed open before anyone could move.

He ran threw the kitchen and into the living room, stopping short at the scene before him. His uncle Darry was sat up against a wall, his father wrapping a makeshift bandage around his bicep. But that wasn't what had him pale and heard his mother whisper, "Oh God."

Jane sat on the floor with Sam in her lap covered in blood. She looked up at his approach and he felt his heart break at the sight of her tears.

"Peter you have to do something. She's bleeding out too much, I think they nicked an artery or something." She chocked back a sob, "Pete, please" she begged.

She turned her face up to him her hair falling back from her eyes to show her pain-filled eyes.

"Pete, please help her. I can't lose her." He crouched down beside her and silently cursed under his breath. Her guess was right; the bullet had nicked an artery.

There wasn't anything he could do til they got her to the hospital. And judging by the blood flow she didn't have much longer til even the best surgeon in Tulsa could help her. He couldn't stand to look in her hopeful eyes; but he had to. He turned to her and wanted to cut his own heart out when he saw the hopeful look fade from her eyes and she sobbed harder into her sister's hair. Just then, a crash came from the stairs and Jane grabbed the knife strapped to her leg, tossing it at the intruder. Ben caught it by the handle before it could make contact with his chest.

Several let out a shaky breath when they saw it was Ben; he went pale at the sight of his girlfriend lying bloody in her sister's arms. He heard a shaky inhale of breath from behind him and knew it was Randi. She brushed past him and took up the other side of Sam, her hands soon covered in blood as well as she tried to stop the flow. Pete looked at the injured woman and took her wrist in hand, and felt a pulse. She was still alive, but not for long. He looked round the room, "She's got a pulse, we need to get her to the hospital now, if we wait for the bus she may not make it." Jane sobbed at that, Ren's eyes welled up at that, "Tell us what to do, Pete." He looked around the room, seeing what could be done, wishing he had his kit with him more than ever.

"We need to get her in Uncle Dar's truck, it's the fastest and she won't be bounced around much." Darry stood up, "I'll get the truck started," but immediately went back down, dizzy from blood loss, Kent helped his father up, "I'll drive, Dad." He took the keys from his father's jean pocket and ran outside.

He looked over at his mother, "I need as many towels as you can get, Mom." She ran down the hall and was back with a stack of hand towels, handing them to her son. He wrapped and tied them off around her wounds, praying it would buy them some time. The truck engine roared to life and Pete gestured to Ben to help pick her up, they picked her up, Jane and Ren both standing with them, holding the towels to her wounds. They walked her outside and laid her down in the bed of the truck, slamming the tailgate behind them.

In a flood, everyone was outside, as many as they could get into one car, in seconds, engines being turned over and started filled the dusk air. Kent looked up at the truck doors being opened; his parents and his uncles were squished in the tight confines of the front and back seats. Cooper leaned over to him, "The girls and the kids are getting in the cars and following behind us. Maddie already called the hospital and told them we were coming." He looked in the back of the truck; Pete looked up from a pale Sam and gave him the go ahead. He nodded and turned again to back up. He saw Sam looked even paler if that was possible, he turned back around in his seat and put the truck into drive and spit grass and dirt as he tore out of the yard. He saw a burnt-out SUV at the end of the driveway blocking his way out. He gunned the engine and without a second thought rammed it out of his way, metal screeched as he tore out of the drive way and down the road, leading a stream of cars and trucks to the hospital.

In the back, the camper-sheltered them from the worse of the wind, Sam had regained consciousness, feeling like she was in a ocean of pain. But when she tried to move, she couldn't. She knew was dying, she didn't need anyone to tell her that much. The irony of the fact she was dying from the same gun that killed her father wasn't lost on her. She was sad that she was going to go like this; most cops hope to go down in a blaze of glory or protecting the public. She was doing neither; she was going down to protect her family. She opened her eyes; her vision blurred, but could make out the faces of her sisters. Both had tears running down her face, and was covered in blood.

Her blood, she thought belatedly.

She took a hard breath, "Janie. I love you, you've always had my back, even when you didn't need to." She gave a choked laugh, "Cause if I didn't, who else would pull your ass out of trouble?" She gave a ghost of a smile, "Yeah. Between you, Ren and me, we were lucky we didn't give Al grey hair in high school." Both smiled down at her, "Rennie, I love you, sissy. You always made things interesting." She tried to take their hands in hers, but couldn't. Both knew what she wanted and took a hand in hers. "I love you both." She could feel it getting harder to breath, "Tell..tell…mom and Al I love'em." She looked past them, watching with a sad face as Ben's eyes glimmered with unshed tears, she mouthed the words, "I love you" to him. She just wished she had more time to show how much…

Her eyelids felt too heavy and started to close them. "Tell'em I'm sorry." Her world went black.

* * *

Jane let out a cry, as Sam's eyes slid closed and felt her heart beat slowed down, stuttering to keep beating beneath her palm.

No!

God, no! Please take me, but don't take my Sammie.

Pete cursed under his breath when he felt her wrist and felt her pulse get weaker. He moved to pound on the window to the camper and yelled, "Kent, floor it! We're losing her!"

He felt the truck speed up and saw his father swearing under his breath while some of his uncles and aunt started praying. Jane and him alternated between CPR and chest compressions to keep her heart beating, Ben and Randi adding towels to her wounds, as they tried to keep her alive. He felt the truck jerk to a halt in front of the ER doors. Dr. Anderson and an middle-aged nurse come out while another doctor and nurse were standing by with a gurney.

"We got two gunshot victims here, one's up front in the cab, looks like the bullet might have graze him. This one, has one in her shoulder and abdomen. Looks like a artery has been hit, massive bleeding. BP is dropping. Heart rate is down."

They opened the back of the camper and together they lifted the injured woman on to the gurney and rolled her inside while Pete followed them threw the doors that separated them from the rest of the ER. It was quiet and looked like the night shift was short-staffed.

He was in the room helping them stabilize her. He was told to go out into the waiting room while they prepped her for surgery. He walked out and into the waiting room, he saw his uncle was already treated and gauze was wrapped around his bicep. He saw everyone was sitting all around the room. Thankfully, the waiting room was empty with the exception of them. The room went silent when he walked in; Jane came straight to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her to his chest, feeling her muffled sobs against his shirt. He looked around the room; "They're prepping her for surgery. They got her stable and the doctor said we got her here just in time. They'll let us know when they wheel her out of surgery."

The room fairly buzzed at that, relieved sighs and sobs of relief echoed around him. Pete led a sobbing Jane to a empty couch and sat down them down. "Jane, she's okay. I worked with the doc that's operating on her; he's one of the best."

Though he didn't say anything to them he knew the chances of Sam coming out of this alive was slim; losing that much blood that fast had put her into shock and may possibly be in a coma when they bring her out of surgery; the artery that had been hit was going to need extensive repair. Time would only tell if Sam Winston came threw this alive.

* * *

Steve awoke the next day with a crick in his neck and his arm asleep from Meg sleeping on it all night. As he became more awake, he heard a unfamiliar voice talking and looked around to see Soda talking to a tall redheaded woman, she turned and he saw she could have been Randi's older sister. She also had a little boy on her hip, he couldn't see his face but he could guess who it was.

This had to be Brooke, Randi's mother. A second later footsteps came down the hall and he saw two woman ladled down with plastic bags and cups that had the Dingo's logo on them. As they drew closer he felt his breath draw short when he got a good look at them.

Val and Kate Miller.

They looked much as they did when he saw them on the web cam, but they both looked tired and had aged at least ten years. Val gave him a weak smile, a shadow of the one he was used to as a kid. "Hey, Steve. It's good to see you." Her smile grew a little wider, "I see you finally grew into your looks; you don't look like someone hit you in the face with a shovel anymore."

His surprised laugh echoed around him and caused his wife and several others, to stir from their exhausted sleep. The guys looked around sleepily, stopping short at the sight of Val and Kate. Darry looked at them with surprise, and a touch of sympathy in his eyes. He walked over to them both, enveloping them in a hug, Val hugged him back, greeting him, Kate hugged him back, but was holding back the tears she was aching to let go off in her adoptive big brother's arms. He pulled back, discreetly wiping away the few tears that slipped past her control.

"When did you guys get here?" Kate picked up her Styrofoam cup, sipping her coffee before answering, "Around six this morning. We took the red eye out of Savannah, that brought us to Little Rock, then we rented a SUV when our flight was delayed and drove the rest of the way here."

Val smiled over at Pony, who was holding little Shelby as she babbled on her baby talk, "Pony and a couple of the others were still awake when we got here; they had just wheeled Sam out of surgery." He sat up straighter, taking the coffees she handed to him, passing one to Meg, "How's she doing?" Val sighed, "She's in ICU right now, they were able to get the bullets out without further damage. Thankfully the bullet from her stomach missed all her vital organs. Al's in there with her right now, between Jane and Al donating blood she should be okay." Pony looked up from Shelby, taking their faces in, "But there's more, isn't there?"

Kate nodded, holding onto her composure with all she had, "Yeah. Last year she was injured while on duty and sustained slight nerve damage, she recovered; but she was told if that arm was hit again there was a good possibility she would lose use of that arm. It was hit again; they won't know how much damage is done til she wakes up, and their keeping her in a medical induced coma to let her heal." The room was quiet at that; several of the older kids put their plastic forks down beside their Styrofoam plates, appetite gone. Two-Bit spoke quietly, "Where's Jane and Randi?"

"I sent them home to get cleaned up." He turned and saw a beautiful redhead walk to him, a small dark-haired boy on her hip, her hand stretched out to him, "I'm Brooke Lewis, you must be Two-Bit." He took her hand and shook it, "Who's this shy little guy?" She gave him a gentle nudge, whispering in his ear, he sleepily lifted his head and Two-Bit felt the blood drain from his face when a familiar pair of black eyes met him. "This is Mikey, Jane's boy."

Jesse was drying off in the other bathroom while Randi was taking her shower. He was coming out of the bathroom and into Randi's room to get the spare clothes he kept over there, stopping short when he saw Randi coming out of the steamy master bath in only a barely there towel, and a black garbage bag in her hand. Both stopped short at the sight of the other one in only a towel. She blushed, "I'll go get dressed in the bathroom", and walked over to her dresser, opened drawers, pulling out underwear and a shirt and sweats before walking back to the bathroom. Jesse let out a frustrated growl and walked back to the bathroom, turning the cold water on full blast before stepping back in the stall.

* * *

The trip to the hospital was a silent one for Jane and Pete. She looked out the window of Pete's truck, blushing at the memory of this morning when he took her back to her and Sam's apartment to get cleaned up. They stayed in the shower til the water turned ice cold, but she didn't regret it. This morning she had needed him like she never needed one before. When he asked if she needed help scrubbing, she didn't say no. She knew as he was gently scrubbing her long hair, she had been stupid to let her insecurities color her decisions and who she wanted it to affect. Yesterday had been a prime example that life was too short. She asked him to give her stubborn self another chance at them. He agreed.

Jane was the first to reach the waiting room when they got off the elevator, eager to hear about Sam, and to see her family she hadn't seen since January. The second she stepped in the room, a little blur ran at her, "Momma Jane!" tackling her and nearly knocking them both to the ground had Pete not been right behind her and caught them. She was grateful now aunt Brooke insisted she get cleaned up before Mikey woke up and saw her.

She held him tight to her chest and buried her face into his dark hair as she inhaled his little boy scent. Crayons and innocence. She loved that smell as much as she loved fresh air and manliness; the scent that always seemed to cling to Peter's skin and clothes.

She smiled gently into his dark eyes, much like her own, "I missed you, Momma Jane. Did you miss me? " She smiled down at him, tears gleaming in her eyes, "I've missed you too, baby boy. Every day." She hugged him tighter to her, feeling a sense of rightness in her world despite everything going wrong with it, with him in her arms.

Pony looked at Jane and looked at the little boy in her arms. It was hard to believe he wasn't related to Johnny or Jane. Because there was no denying it; he looked like he could be Jane's son. He saw from a glance around the room showed several of the guys thinking the same thing. He could have been Johnny's twin at that age; he looked so much like him. Right down to the shy little smile he had on his face.

Wendy saw the look on her face when she held the boy in her arms. It was one she experienced herself with her kids; it was one she knew had been on her own face many times over the years when she held one of their children. Like she would lay down her life for that child and God help you if you tried to take them away from her.

She walked over to him, smiling over the boy's head, "Pony I'd like you to be the first to meet my son, Mikey Richards." She ran a gentle hand over his dark hair, "This spring he'll be Mikey Richards-Cade." His little head shot up at that, his dark eyes sparkling with joy, "Their gonna let me leave with you? Forever?!" She nodded, "Yep, Miss Ruth called a couple of weeks ago and told me their going to have our hearing the upcoming Fall, by Christmas we're going to be official." He let out a little sound of happiness and hugged her neck tightly.

Seven days after Sam's surgery she was taken off the meds that kept her in the medically-induced coma. Three days later, she still hadn't woken up and they were given the bad news; Sam had slipped into a coma from the trama of being shot then surgery, it could last a week or a month, the doctor said.

The doctor said warned them it could happen with the amount of blood she lost, but they still took it hard. They later found out that the doctor already had his suspicions she would gon into one from the signs she was showing both before and after surgery. The doctor was just trying to buy her time befoe he gave them the news and it was why they were told right away. Kate was devastated at the news. Al was numb from the news.

Jane created a whole new term for the phrase 'pissed to the max'.

Jane sat by Sam's bedside, the machines hooked up to her, beeping ever few seconds was the only sound in the room. She looked up at the sound of the door opening and saw it was her mother. They all had been taking turns staying with Sam and told the doctor the situation. Thankfully, the doctor was an old friend of the Curtis's understood the situation. He said all he had to do was look at Al and her and there was no denying who they were related to.

He had posted guards on Sam's room and the waiting room, for added protection to the detail Meredith and Alan assigned them. Alan had not been pleased she had acted and done what she had done; but when he came back later that night when he was off duty he told he would have done the same to protect his family. Merdieth told her the same; "I would have done what you and Sam did myself, Jane. But as your Captains, me and Alan can't tell you that while we're on the job and actin as your superiors."

Val sat down beside her, handing her a cup of coffee, "Honey I'm doing to go down to the cafeteria to get something to eat, you want me to get you something?" She shook her head, taking a sip of the fresh coffee before speaking, "I'm fine, Mom. But would you mind taking Mikey to get him something?" She smiled over at the boy sleeping on the couch in the corner of the room. Her mother sighed, "Janie, you got to eat. You've lived on nothing but coffee, and a little bag of Cheetos for the last three days." She brushed a hand over her daughter's dark hair, "It won't do Sam any good if you collapse cause you ain't taking care of yourself." She sighed, "Fine, I'll go down to the café with you two." She walked over to the couch to wake her son and go downstairs. She smiled at that thought; her son. She still couldn't believe that those words applied to her. In a few months his adoption would be official and she was counting down the days til she could call him her son, no foster added to it.

Val brushed a blond hair off her niece's face and looked into her peaceful face. She let out a shuddering sigh and fought back the tears trying to erupt. She looked down at the woman and saw the little girl with the messy curls instead of the woman she was. She couldn't die; not now. She wasn't even thirty years old; she was just too young to die now. She leaned down and brushed a kiss across her cheek and forehead, much like she had done when she was a child. "Get better soon, Sammie girl," she whispered. "We need you here. All of us." She straightened and went out the door with her daughter and grandson to the cafeteria.

___________

* * *

_

_He smiled at the nurses at the nurse's station as he moved to the ICU. He had been waiting for the guards to change shifts before moving. He discreetly looked at the room number and chart outside it; but he knew it was Samantha Winston's room when Cade's bitch and bastard and a kid that had to be hers come out of the room. _

_He went in, but before he could move a nurse came in, a IV bag in her hand. He smiled at her, and asked her how she was doing. She smiled a bit sadly, "She's doing okay; but she still hasn't shown any signs of waking up from the coma. The mother and brother have been told she could wake up soon though. She seemed to show quite bit of activity when her cousin and her son come in and talked to her. So we're hopeful." _

_He inwardly swore at that bit of news, he cleared his throat, "Thank you, Nurse." She smiled and handed him the chart before she left the room, muttering under breath at his rudeness. When the door closed and he assured himself no one would see him or catch him in the act; he pulled the syringe from his coat pocket. He smirked as he injected the drug into her IV line. He would toss the syringe when he left the room, no one would be the wiser. _

_When they did the autopsy the drug would be gone from her system and it would look like the blood loss, coma and bullet wounds was too much for her body and it gave out. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and straightened. _

_Jane Cade would be his next target; she would be tough to take down with her skills but, she would be easier to take out than Ben Shepard. But it was going to have to take some finesse, but Shepard would have to go as well, they knew too much and he couldn't afford either one of them taking what they had on him to the DA. Everything he worked for would go down in flames. Along with his pension him and his wife was counting on when he retired in the next four years. _

_He walked to the door and opened it. He felt a moment of panic when he spotted Ponyboy Curtis and Tim Shepard walking towards him. He ducked his head as they neared him; taking a chart from one of the holders, but looked up out of the corner of his eye and saw them pass waters and coffee to their wives and several people sitting in the waiting room. _

_While Tim hadn't changed much in the years since he saw him, Pony Curtis was a different story. The small, skinny little teenager he had been was long gone and in his place was a tall, strong-looking man; from the back, he could have been mistaken for a slimmer lighter hair Darry Curtis. He walked down the corridor like he belonged in these halls. He waited around the corner and waited for Samantha Winston to code blue.

* * *

_

Kate Miller was getting off the elevators when a feeling of dread and apprehension

hit her so hard she felt her legs buckle. Ben caught her as she nearly hit the floor; they had just finished their shift of watching on the roof and Al and Brooke were up on the roof in their stead. He looked at her concerned; she fought the panic attack she felt trying to take over her; her chest felt like a linebacker was sitting on it right now. She looked up at her daughter's boyfriend and used the hand he offered to right herself.

"Sam."

He looked at her confused, "Kate what are you talking about?"

She looked at him, took his arms in her hands, and tugged at the sleeves toward the ICU.

"Something is wrong with Sam. I can feel it."

She barely got the words out of her mouth when a beeping sound came over a loudspeaker announcing a code blue. She felt her heart drop into her stomach at those words. She had seen enough hospital shows to know that a code blue was meaning someone was in bad shape. She took off running towards her daughter's room and was stopped at the sight of her niece, Jane being literally dragged from the room by Peter and Pony while Val and Randi kept a scared Mikey sandwiched between them. Jane was silently crying as she went over to her and took her by the shoulders; she looked up at her aunt and went into her arms. "She coded, while we were downstairs. We were gone five minutes at the most," she sobbed.

Kate looked at the open doorway and saw doctors and nurses surrounding her daughter's bed; she heard a doctor say she was going into cardiac arrest.

The doctor looked at the machine and swore.

"Blood pressure's dropping. We're losing her! Get the crash cart in here now!"

Kate watched- almost detached like- as they brought the crash cart into the room and started charging it. Jane pulled out of her aunt's grasp and started to the room again when Randi stopped her this time.

Randi held her sister firmly, wrapping her arms around her chest, holding in place, even though she wanted to go to Sam just as badly as she did. Jane made a distressed sound when they saw them shock Sam. When they got no response, they charged the machine to a higher setting and shocked her again, causing her to arch under the electricity. Jane began to shake as they charged the machine a third time and didn't get a response. She started to the door to be held by Randi and fought the younger woman's grasp to get to Sam's side.

"No. No!

Sam, wake up!" she screamed.

Dammit, you little Priss don't you die on me! Don't you dare die on me! Don't you dare die on me now, Samantha Winston! Don't…"

She sobbed as the words left her mouth and felt her legs give out, like she couldn't no longer stand. Randi sank to the ground with her, tears running down her face as she held her sister to her. She heard the doctor call time of death and felt like someone punched her in the chest; her heart hurting. Jane felt her heart shatter into a million pieces at those words.

She looked up at the soul-piercing cry come from her aunt and saw Ben catch her as she fainted. She felt like the walls were closing in on her, she couldn't breathe. She had to get out of here, if she didn't see her in that bed, it wasn't real. Sam was still alive if she didn't see her in that bed. She broke free of Randi's grasp and walked to the elevators, wanting to run as far and as fast as she could.

She started to the elevators when she saw a doctor come around the corner and walk towards the stairs. She frowned; there was something familiar about that man. He turned slightly as he walked to the door, bringing his face in her line of sight and felt the air leave her as she saw his face. It was the face of the man who ran her over in his car all those years ago. She could never remember his face, a side effect of the crash they said. But she knew it was him. It was the last thing she saw before slipping into a month-long coma. She saw him turn to go down the stairs; she shook her head and rushed to catch him before he left, "Sir. Please can I talk to you for a moment?" He turned and the feeling that had been screaming at her since she saw his face, blared at her, she barely was able to duck behind a medicine cart before he took a gun out of the lab coat and opened fire.

* * *

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_Thank you for your reviews and patience. I'm working on the next chapter and hopefully-knock wood- can get it done and sent out soon. Now I have a very important question: should I have our villain arrested and sent to prison to be someone's 'love piñata' –Don't you just love Toby Keith in 'Beer For My Horses'- or have Jane make him into a human skibob? _

_I can't decide which way I want to go with it, so I would really appreciate the help deciding. I have a scene set up with either option, but can't decide which way to go with it.. _


	32. Chapter 32

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_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. Oh, and I apologize ahead of time if I don't do police ranking in the right context.

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Chapter Thirty

Randi came up beside Jane intent on stopping her from leaving. She came up behind her, with every intention of stopping her, or taking her in a empty room and let her scream and cry; but as she neared her she saw her attention was on a doctor in starting out the door that led to the stairwell. The words she planned to say to comfort her, died on her tongue at both the white pallor of her normally tanned sister and the man's face. She felt a black anger and hatred like she had never felt before come over her. He was one of the men that was at the house that day. He had a motorcycle with him and enabled him to get out of there so fast. He was also no doubt the one that shot Sam and Darry.

She bit back the growl trying to come from her throat and was about to call out to him when Jane called out to him instead, "Sir. Please can I talk to you for a moment?" She saw it in slow motion, he turned and she saw a gun hidden in the folds of his coat, come into view. She barely made it behind the nurse's station before he opened fire.

"Get down!" Randi heard a nurse scream as shots were fired; several ducked behind the station while others ducked behind metal carts and machines. Randi ducked down, covering her head from the glass, flowers and debris rained in a shower over her. The waiting room erupted into a frenzy of movement. Val scooped her grandson up, tucked them into a corner, and held him close to her chest as his cries of confusion floated up to her ears as the shots erupted around them.

Ben pushed Kate down on the ground and fell onto top of her to protect her. Steve pulled his wife down onto the ground, going down with her; out of the corner of his eye he saw Tim scoop a crying Shelby into his arms and crouched over her while everyone pulled those near them down onto the floor.

Jane looked over and saw Randi ducked behind the nurse's station, pulling her gun out from her waistband and flicking the safety off. She heard a nurse talk on a scanner saying they needed the police down here, pronto. They both ducked down and debated what to do; they couldn't and wouldn't risk any more civilians' lives with this bastard around. Randi ducked out behind the corner and fired a shot at him. He retaliated then took off running toward the stairs. Jane was following him in a flash. Randi quickly looked around the room and saw no one was seriously hurt and crawled over to the nurse that had been with Sam since her first night in ICU. "You alright, Stacy?" She nodded, looking shaken; but not signs of cuts or wounds, "Yeah, Randi. Who the hell was that though?" She shook her head, eager to go in pursuit of the guy with Jane, "Never mind that. Call the police back and tell them Lieutenant Cade is in pursuit of suspect." She took off toward the stairs were Jane and the suspect went. The nurse called after her, "Wait! Where are you going, Randi?"

She called over her shoulder, "I'm going to help Jane. I used to be with Savannah PD. They'll know who we are!"

With that, she picked up speed and went flying down the stairs that led to the lobby of the hospital.

* * *

Jane pushed her self to run faster to catch up with the suspect. He had a head start but she wasn't the fastest runner in her academy class for nothing. She caught up with him and used her speed of momentum to jump on him, tackling him to the ground with a hard thud and rolled across the tile floor before coming to a stop. She felt a perverse sense of satisfaction when she saw his ankle was twisted in the wrong direction.

She grabbed him roughly by the collar and flung him onto his back. He reached for his gun but she was quicker; kicking it out of reach and withdrew her knife in a flash. He went still as she pressed the knife to his throat.

He realized then he had badly under estimated her. He saw the cold hard look in her eye and he knew she was on the edge; and she wouldn't hesitate to take him out; but rather was itching for a reason to, even a slight one.

Randi was breathless when she reached the lobby and saw Jane was standing over the prone man with a knife pressed to his throat. As she neared, she saw a look in her eye she knew had been in her own on a wintry night eight years ago. A look that meant she was a step away from doing what she had to do to protect her own; eliminate the threat. To kill the one that threatened her own.

Randi saw the look in her sister's eye and knew she was close to the edge. This man had done so much to Jane; he took the father she never knew and hurt her extended family and nearly killed her as a child in hit-and-run accident. Some would say Randi should turn a blind eye and let Jane give him a grin from ear-to-ear.

But Randi knew if she did, the Jane they knew would die with him and be a shell of the woman she was. Cautiously, she stepped to Jane and put a hand on her shoulder. She could feel the muscles quivering under her palm, she realized then how much Jane was holding back to keep from killing the man beneath her.

Neither saw the two men come threw the lobby doors, or pull short at the sight before them, or that one of the men went pale at the scene before him.

Randi gently squeezed her shoulder and leaned forward.

"Jane, let him up." She shook her head fiercely; she didn't trust her voice to work at the moment. She was fighting the side of her that was begging her to kill him and be done with it. The mean and merciless side that was begging her to make his death slow and painful for what he did.

"Jane," she said insistently. "Jane, he ain't worth it. Let him up. He is not worth you going to jail, hon."

She glared down into his face, letting him see behind the calm mask she always presented to the world. The raw, emotionally-charged rage, no doubt, burning in her eyes along with the tears at the thought of her beloved Sam lying cold and lifeless upstairs because of him.

"You're wrong, Ren," she choked out of her tear-choked throat. "Say I let him live. We both know a jury would be stupid enough to set him free and who will he come after then?

Al? Shelby? Aunt Kate or Aunt Brooke? Mom? You? Peter?"

She felt a tear slip down her cheek at the though of this animal going after Mikey. She glared down at him and pressed the knife harder, drawing a drop of blood underneath his Adam's apple.

"Let him out and he hurt my son?" she hissed angrily. She never took her gaze from his, but heard sirens draw closer to the hospital. She choked back a sob as she spoke, "How many more people have to die because of him? How many, Randi? Dad, Uncle Dallas… Sam? How much more of my family do I have to lose to appease this bastard?!"

Randi felt the sting of tears for Jane, "Janie, Sam's alive."

She went still at those words and she saw some of the rage leave her eyes.

"Say that again."

"She's alive, Janie. I was coming to tell you when you spotted him. She came back. She's alive. Jane, if you love Sam and Mikey as much as I know you do, you won't make them see you behind plate glass."

She took a breath and focused on the words the younger woman said. She leaned down into his face and whispered low enough were only he would hear her, "I hate you. You don't know how bad I want to kill you right now. To make you scream for mercy and show you none." He went pale and sweat broke out on his forehead, covering him in seconds.

"But I won't. Right now. But tonight-tonight, when you lie in your cell and you hear footsteps walking to your cell, night sounds that are out of place, it just might be me. Coming to finish this."

She pulled back slowly, "Now get up, slowly. I won't kill you, but that don't mean I won't accidentally stab you and make you a patient here." He stood up slowly, aware of the tall redhead had a gun trained on him as Jane lowered her knife and withdrew handcuffs and cuffed him.

"Captain Richard Baker, you're under arrest for the murders of Dallas Winston and John Cade; as well as the attempted murder of Detective Samantha Winston and Jane Cade.

In case, you don't remember me, I'm that little girl you hit with your car in New York fourteen years ago." She gave a vicious tug of the handcuffs as she read him his rights.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Which I really hope you can't afford one and get the dumbest Public Defense lawyer in history. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?"

He glared down at her. "Yeah, and I do remember you. Your that little half-breed bitch of Cade's. You're just like your old man, another dumb, useless Greaser that's a waste of space."

Randi saw red at the insults, but before she could move, Jane slugged him hard and the sound of cartilage crunched as he slumped back against Randi, his broken nose pouring blood onto his shirt. She glared at him, hands on her hips. "My father was twice the man you are when he was just a kid."

She gestured to Randi, and together they picked the barely conscious man up and handed him off to the police who walked in just as she just as she cuffed him. Randi looked at the arresting officer and spoke, "Put him in the jail." He nodded; he saw by the way both women looked, both would love a shot at him when no one was around. He looked at the man he had worked under and felt a deep sadness and disgust that the man would stoop so low. He handed him off to his partner and looked over at the two women, "You know I need both your statements. The brass isn't going to let this go." He looked over at Jane, "Especially with all the information you D.A. friend in Savannah sent the head Captain on Baker."

He looked back at the two women as they loaded the perp into the back of a cruiser, watching as the cruiser pulled away and out into traffic.

It was another half hour before the detective they talked with allowed them to go. When they left the nurse's lounge where they gave their statements, they found Pete and Jesse waiting on them. Jane stood there for a moment before she spoke to Peter, "Pete, is she okay? Is-is she really alive?" She found herself praying for all she was worth that she was okay. He nodded, "She's alive, Jane; that's all I know.

She looked up at him with anxious eyes. "She's alive but is she alright, Pete?" she said softly. He heaved a heavy sigh, "I don't know, Jane. She was without oxygen for twenty-five minutes; there's no telling how she'll be if she wakes up."

She went pale at those words, she swayed and he caught her just as her legs buckled. He went with her and they knelt on the lobby floor. Her face was nestled in his neck and he felt the wet warmth of her tears. She sobbed into his neck as he held her close. Jesse put an arm around Randi as they watched helplessly as Jane broke down.

Peter held her as she cried, soothing her as best he could. "I should have never come here. Oh, God. I shouldn't have pushed her into investigating their deaths with me. I shouldn't have-" She was shushed by Randi. "Janie, stop," she said softly. "You know Sam as well as I do, she would have helped you with it even if you didn't ask for it. Now, come on. Let's go see her." She shook her head and looked up at Peter with those soulful eyes of hers and said, "I can't. I want my baby. I want to see my son and know he's okay." And to compose herself before she saw Sam again.

She turned her head, resting it on his shoulder and looked up at him beseechingly. He nodded and stood taking her with him and led them over to the elevators.

Randi hung up her cell from making the call to Al and her mother when she saw two men cautiously approached them from across the lobby. One stood nearly as tall as her brother-without the cowboy hat on she would guess-and lean, despite the heavy denim jacket he had on. The other man was a few inches shorter than him and was dressed similar to him, she guessed they might be ranchers or possibly farmers based on how they were dressed. Both had a slow, confident gait to their walk and it was clear they knew who they were approaching. They stopped a couple of feet before them, the shorter one spoke. "Excuse me, miss. The man and woman you were talking to earlier. Would they by any chance be related to a Valerie Miller and Ponyboy Curtis?"

He spoke with a lazy drawl that sounded like he was possibly from another country; like Europe or South America, but his words were American.

Neither spoke, both giving them a wary look. Who were these men and how did they know Aunt Val and Pony? When neither answered but continued to look at them suspiciously; the taller man let out a heavy sigh, "Look we ain't gonna hurt anyone, we just wanna know if they Val and Pone's kids." He removed his hat, giving her a clear view of his face, Randi heard Jesse gasp and felt herself pale as she looked into the stranger's familiar eyes.

* * *

Jane rushed off the elevator and raced to waiting room to find it filled with not only the guys and several of the kids and wives, but hospital personnel checking them over. She saw her mother and Mikey off in a corner being checked out by a nurse. "Mikey!" His head shot up at her voice and ran full speed at her, "Momma Jane!" He wrapped his arms and legs around her, nearly knocking her down as he did so. Pete was right behind her, with a firm hand at her back and searching over the boy's features for any possible injuries.

She looked over at her mother and saw she was shaken but fine, she held a hand out to her and Val went to her, hugging them both tightly to her. She buried her face in Jane's hair as she did the same with Mikey. She kissed the top of his head, biting back the tears she was trying to hold in. She lost that battle when she felt his little body shake with silent tears as he nuzzled his face into her neck. She ran her hand over his soft hair and whispered assurances to him while her mother whispered it to them both before pulling away, "I'm going to see if your aunt's alright, Janie." She nodded and hugged her before wrapping both arms around Mikey. Val saw Pete wrap his arms around them both, as if reassuring himself they both alright. It didn't surprise her since Pete had become as protective of the boy as Jane had. She walked down the long corridor to the exam room they set Kate in to check her over. She passed Al and Brooke coming down the roof stairs and into the waiting room and saw Al take a crying Shelby from Tim's arms, running a shaky hand over her red face. She was almost at the door of the room she saw them take her twin to, when she stopped feeling like she had to see something. Just as she turned the elevator dinged and out came Ren and Jesse of the lift with two other people behind them. She could almost feel a shift in the air, like something was going to happen. Vaguely, she saw Brooke run over to her daughter, enveloping her in a tight hug while Two-Bit did the same to Jesse. But it was the people that came off after them that held her attention. Both was dressed in casual clothes, jeans and denim jackets and cowboy hats.

One was tall and lean looking despite the heavy jacket, while the other one was a little shorter but more stocky. But from what Val could make of him it wasn't fat; he looked like he was solid muscle, the denim jacket he wore only emphasized the breadth of his shoulders and the cowboy hat he wore only added to the mystery of this stranger. Both stopped short at the sight of the destroyed waiting room and some of the guys still getting checked over by nurses and doctors. She saw one was rebandaging the wound on Darry's arm. She saw the taller one's jaw work as he took in the nurse wrapping fresh gauze around his arm while the shorter one's sun-darkened face went pale as she saw a nurse stitch a cut on Pony's forehead from where he pulled Wendy down and hit his head on the coffee table.

As if he could feel her gaze, the shorter one looked in her direction. He went still when he saw her, but turned and walked in her direction, his hat obscuring most of his face. Til he walked directly under a light and she caught a look at his eyes. She felt her heart stop, then pound into over time as the stranger with the familiar eyes walked to her, standing only a couple of feet away from her. She knew those eyes, but at the same time didn't.

Outside of her daughter, she knew of only one person with those eyes.

And he was dead.

Or at least that was what she was told. She took a shaky step back from the man, ignoring the hurt flash threw his eyes as she stumbled back, whispering, "Oh sweet Lord an' mercy! It can't be!" the world around her faded to darkness and her knees give out from under her. He was by her side in a flash, catching her as she fell. She looked up at the man in front of her, "Johnny, is that really you?" she whispered as she faded into unconsciousness.

* * *

__

_Thank you for your reviews and patience. I'm working on the next chapter and hopefully-knock wood- can get it done and sent out soon. Oh, I've been told today is reader's appreciation day, so I'd like to thank all those that read any of my stories- those that review or not. Thank you. _


	33. Chapter 33

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively. Before I continue on to the story, I'd like to say something in regards to this story taking so long to get out. I have had some chapters done for a while, I've just been proofreading and re-writing certain parts of them before I sent them out or I just couldn't find a way to make it work and have to wait for inspiration.

_But the last five chapters or so I knew were going to be it, and for the last eleven years in one form or another this story has been with me. And this story is very dear to me in another way; I started writing this story about four months after my dad died. He died every suddenly and my family and me had been hit extra hard by it because the week before, my grandmother had a heart attack and died. I won't say I was in a dark place, but I was at a low I didn't know exist at that time. There was many times I could barely stand to think of their names without bursting into tears. I found this website one day and after reading some of the stories on here I decided to finally write this one. Sometimes I think writing it kept me from going crazy the first year after him and her died. _

* * *

Chapter Thirty-One

Jane looked up from Peter and Mikey's embrace at the sound of her mother's voice and gasped seeing her mother on the floor in a stranger's arms, unconscious. She pulled from Peter's arms and pushed Mikey into his arms, tearing down the hallway where she laid just outside of her aunt's door. "Get away from her!"

The man looked up at her approach and voice and she saw his eyes widen in surprise and his sun-tanned face blanche as he took in her own face. She felt herself pale when she looked into the man's face. She was looking at a male-version of her face.

Steve and Soda hurried down the corridor at the sound of Jane's shout and stopped in their tracks at the sight that greeted them and managed to freeze the blood in their veins. Val was lying unconscious in a man's arms with Jane crouched by her side. She was staring at the man holding her mother with a mix of shock and awe. He had a cowboy hat lying beside him and an open denim jacket. They saw his face and both men gasped causing him to look up.

It was Johnny Cade.

It was Johnny, yet it wasn't him. He had changed in the twenty-five years they had seen him last. He had grown into his features and was every bit as broad-shouldered and muscular as Darry and Pony was. He no longer looked like a scared skinny little puppy but a strong, capable man. The two men's stare-down was interrupted by Meg coming up to Steve, touching his arm she caught his attention, "Steve, the doctor's here, they want to talk to us about Sam's condition. Al said their going to keep Kate overnight to make sure she's okay. Ben said she hit her head on her way down when she fainted." A movement caught her eye and saw a tall dark-haired man in cowboy duds move to her and ask in a stern voice, "What wrong with Kate? Is she alright?" She smiled at him assuredly, "She alright she's just fainted…."

She trailed off when she caught a good look at the man's face; he looked so much like Al they were nearly mirror images, but that couldn't be right. Al looked just like Dally and Dallas Sr. died over twenty years ago. But the man before her could be Al ten to fifteen years down the road.

She was drawn from the conversation by Pete asking where Kate's room was. She pointed down the hallway and it wasn't until then she realized Val was unconscious. She gasped, "Oh, my God. Is Val alright?"

"She'll be alright once she comes to." She looked up at the voice and it was coming from the man holding Val, she felt herself pale at the man's face. If the other man looked like Al; this man looked like he could have been Jane's twin brother.

Or father.

She looked closely at the man holding Val and found herself wondering if she had gone crazy because both men looked how she imagine Dallas and Johnny would have looked now if they had lived.

She was broke from her thoughts when the man holding Val stopped at the room that she indicted was Kate's and saw him set her down on the same bed as her sister. Peter said something to the nurse she couldn't hear and saw her nod and they left the room to go down to the waiting room. They arrived there just as the doctor was entering the waiting room. He looked at the chart and looked up at them as a whole. "Who's here regarding Samantha Winston?"

They all raised their hands; he looked at them curiously, and looked at a form at the bottom of the chart.

"It says here in case of an emergency contact Jane Cade or Dallas Winston Jr. May I speak with them?" Jane and Al stepped forward, both with Edie and Peter standing behind them. Al looked at the man, "I'm her brother, and her attorney." Jane looked at him too, "I'm her cousin, and she gave me power of attorney to share with her brother. How is she, Doctor?" He looked at them then at the crowded room, "Why don't we go some where more private?" Jane shook her head, or tried to since Mikey's head was resting on one shoulder. Al switched Shelby to the other arm and shook his head, "There's no need for us to go some where more private; we're all family here. We all have a right to find out how's Sam doing." The doctor looked at them speculatively. "Are you sure?" Jane spoke in a determined voice, "As sure as I know these people are as much our family as Sam is."

The doctor noticed some of the older men in the room stood or sat straighter at her declaration.

Finally he nodded and took out the chart, "We got her stable and her vitals shows she won't crash again." He looked at the two in front of him sharply, "I understand you caught the person that tried to kill her?"

He saw the petite woman nodded slightly, hindered by the little boy in her arms, but the look in her eyes made him grateful the look wasn't for him.

"Yes, doctor. We have reason to believe he came here with the intentions to finish what he started."

He nodded and continued on, "Well, I hope you're able to put him away for a long time, Lieutenant. Because the dosage he gave her nearly killed her. The amount of the drug he gave her was fully intended to kill her. If he hadn't gave it to her and she crashed like she did; she would have awoken from the coma in the next several days or week. She had begun to show signs of coming to consciousness before she crashed."

Al felt his jaw tighten at what the doctor was saying; Sam was about to wake up when the bastard tried to kill her. He made himself focus on the doctor's words; he would find a way to make the sonofabitch pay for what he did another time.

"We're monitoring her vitals for the next twenty-four hours. But when we checked her brain activity, some brain activity appeared abnormal."

They all tensed at the words, 'abnormal brain activity'. Randi frowned and asked, "What do you mean, 'abnormal brain activity'?"

He looked saddened for a moment before continuing, "We haven't run a scan on her yet; but it looks like she might have had a stroke."

They all gasped, the man in front of him clenched his jaw and shut his shining eyes tightly, while the woman paled and leaned into Peter and he heard her whisper, "Oh, God. Sam I'm so sorry."

He continued. "But till she wakes up, we can't be sure how bad it is." He paused, hating having to give them more bad news, "And I'm afraid when we ran tests to test her reflexes, there was no response in her injured arm. It would appear there's no function in the arm at all." He saw the woman start to tremble, and several of the people look heartbroken. "But, we won't know for sure till she wakes up and we can better assess her recovery. But, I'm afraid in comatose patients like Sam, they don't always wake up or when they do, they have long-term damage. As of right now, it's up to her and God."

* * *

He gave his apologies and walked away.

Jane stood there, trembling. Finally she gave a wordless cry and Pete and Al held her between them. "Oh God! Sam, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Sammie!" She sobbed into Al's chest. She stood there for a long moment, before she was aware of Mikey gently tugging on her hair, She pulled away from Al and Pete and saw Mikey, his dark eyes concerned.

"Don't cry, Mom. Aunt Sam will be okay. You said it yourself, Aunt Sam don't let no one get the better of her." She was stunned at first at him calling her Mom, and then his other words registered. She smiled a genuine smile down at him and hugged him tight. "Your right about that, Mike. If anybody can pull threw this it's your Aunt Sam."

He smiled at her and hugged her tight in return, while Pete led her over to a empty chair.

Kate woke up right after the sun set and found herself in a hospital room with her twin lying next to her. She looked around and saw a man dozing in a chair at the foot of the bed. She got up slowly, and walked over to him. She recognized the snore coming form the man as her son. Him and Dally we're the only ones that had such a loud, yet endearing snore. Dally, her heart clenched at the thought of her lost lover, then felt the tears stinging her eyes, run down her face as her memories came rushing back that made her faint.

Her daughter was dead.

Her firstborn, her baby girl; was gone. She let out a shuddering breath; she couldn't fall apart now. Later she could, but not right now. Al needed her. And Jane; God they were going to have to sedate Jane just to get her through the next few days.

She wiped her eyes and pushed it all back and reached for her son's shoulder and shook him awake, "Al? Al, honey you need to wake up." He started and sat up, pulling the hat off his face. She jumped back at the face staring back at her.

It wasn't Al.

The man looked like he would about ten to fifteen years down the road. That could only mean one thing. "Dal?" she whispered hoarsely.

He nodded, standing up, making her take another step back at the sheer size of him. He had grown alot since she saw him last; he stood nearly as tall as Al and looked like his lean frame had filled out with muscle where before he was skinny as a rail. He also was darker now; he had the look of someone that spent a lot of time out doors. But that wasn't all that changed; his pale blonde hair and blue eyes were now brown. She brought a shaky hand up to his face, stopping before she actually touched him. She frowned at the brown eyes starring back at her.

"Contacts," he ducked his head, putting a finger up to his left eye. He lifted his head and she saw the blue eyes that always drew her attention. "Dal, it really is you!" she whispered. She sang down into the chair next to her, "But how? They said you were dead!" She felt like the whole moment was surreal, she had been heartbroken when she heard he died, and couldn't believe she was seeing what she was seeing. "How? How did this happen? Darry said he saw _you die_?!" He ducked his head, running a large hand threw his hair, a trait she remembered well. He knelt in front of her, giving her a long look, "It's a long story, Katie. One that if I hadn't lived it myself I'd question it myself." She sat back in the hard chair and listened to Dally tell her what happened after the shoot-out…

* * *

While Kate was listening to the other half of the story, Jane was starring the stranger that looked like her, down while he told everyone the story of were he and the man that claimed he was her uncle, had been. But she didn't buy it, it was too convenient.

When he was finished the whole room was silent as a tomb, she looked around the room and what she saw made her blood boil, several of the guys, men over the last couple of months she came to few as her uncles, looked at him with hope and longing in their eyes and faces. She stood up and spoke, glaring at him, "I don't know who you are and I don't really care, but I think you need to leave." He looked at her with eyes that were like hers, unblinking, "I am Johnny Cade. I'm your father, Jane." She gave a humorless laugh, "You may look like my father, which by the way nice touch making yourself look like he would've have looked like, but we all know that isn't right since Pony over there," she gestured, "saw him take his last breath." She felt her hands tremble with anger as another though came to her, "Is this some kind of joke, something someone put you up to? Publicity? Cause if it was that sorry sonofabitch Evan that did this you tell him I'm on the first plane back to Savannah and making me a new set of earrings, courtesy of his nut sack!" Every man in the room squirmed at her declaration.

"This family has enough going on, we don't need you or your friend coming in here and playing on everyone's feelings." She sneered at him, "You and _'Dal'_ knew Baker wasn't going to stop til you both were dead and you had to go in hiding." Her face hardened, "I don't believe it, cause for all my dad was, a scared kid among them, he was never a coward." He stared her down, "He is if it means his wife and child stays safe." She frowned at him, "Now I know you ain't him, my mother never told him she was pregnant." "Ma told me, when I was in the hospital she told me the real reason why she left, that was why I stayed hidden."

"Your making it up."

He sighed, "Val has a birthmark on her left hip bone, it's in the shape of a feather." She snorted, "Anyone that's ever seen mom in a bathing suit would know that." He stepped closer, making his next words only for them. "You have four scars on your legs, one on either side of your ankles and knees. Their from were the surgeon had to put the pins after a car hit you and broke both your legs." She stopped breathing at his words. He knew about the hit and run. Those records were sealed and only her immediate family and Pete knew about them. And no one knew about the scars because she always kept her legs covered, either with clothes or body makeup.

"You also have a scar right under your ribs were they had to put a tube in when you got a infection." He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You also was put on life support the three days before Christmas Eve. The night of Christmas Eve you were given 24 hours before Val had to make the decision to take you off life support. You woke up that night." She felt her breath catch and felt her eyes tear up as she allowed herself to remember what happened when she woke up.

_She saw a man sitting in the chair next to her bed, his hand holding hers, his broad shoulders were shaking. When she clenched her hand around his, he looked up and she saw tears running down his face. He looked a lot like the pictures of her dad, but more grown-up. His eyes lit up when he saw she was awake. He leaned over her, kissing her forehead, a tear splashed down on her face when he did. When he pulled back he gently wiped the tear away, smiling down at her, running a gently hand over her face. "My beautiful baby girl." She remembered smiling up at him, wishing she could talk. She must have feel back asleep, because the next time she opened her eyes, the man was gone. _

Tears ran down her face as she came back to herself, she had always thought it was a dream, or maybe all the medicine they had her on, because when she asked about the man in her room; Val told her there had been no man in her room to visit her.

She looked at him with dreaded hope. "Dad?" His eyes lit up just like the last time. He ran a gently hand over her face, cupping a cheek and wiping away the tears there. "My beautiful baby girl." A sob escaped her before she could stop it; "Oh my god."

* * *

It was an hour after Dal started his story; Kate leaned back in the chair, stunned. Both were quiet as everything sank in. She started to speak when a knock at the door stopped her, a second later her son came in and she swore he aged at least ten years since she saw him last. His eyes were red-rimmed and his shoulders were slouched like he was carrying the weight of the world on his back.

He stopped short when he saw Dal was in the room, but continued on when he saw she was awake. He tried to act like nothing was wrong; but he was too much like her. He couldn't hide it from someone that knew him; Al was reaching his breaking point. He smiled anyway and bent down to hug her. "Hey Ma, how are you? The doc said you hit your head earlier." She looked at her son carefully; he needed her to act like nothing was wrong. She mustered a smile back, "I'm okay, son. I have a little headache but I'm okay. I didn't hit my head hurt, just more or less tapped the floor." Her smile faded, "How is she?" His smile looked even more fake at her question. "She's good. Doc said she was touch and go for awhile, but she's stable now." She put her hand on his cheek, "For such a cut-throat lawyer you're a piss-poor liar, son." He choked out a laugh, "Now tell me the truth. How is Sam?"

Al took a deep breath and spoke the words he dreaded speaking.

"She had a stroke, Mom." His words stuttered out between clenched teeth, "They-they don't know if she'll recover from it." Kate sat still as a statue for several moments before she reacted. Her breaths were shuddering in and out before she could speak, her voice thick, "What are her chances for recovery?" Al lowered his head, but it didn't stop her from seeing the tears run down his face. She knew Al and Sam didn't show it, but they both loved one another very much, so it was breaking her heart to see her strong son sobbing over the news. He spoke so quietly she had to strain to hear him "They don't know. When they did the tests on her, they showed no function in Sam's arm and they don't know yet how bad the stroke is. They said wi-with patients like Sam, she could wake up in the next few day or weeks…or never."

* * *

Ben sank down in the hard plastic chair Darry vacated minutes earlier, next to Sam's hospital bed. It had been two weeks today since Sam took a turn. A lot had happened in those two weeks.

The whole gang spent most of their time between the hospital and Pony's house, the repairs from the shoot-out was complete now and now one would even know a battle had taken place there. Except the living room had hardwood floor were before it had carpet.

School was drawing to a close and Alli and Wendy were spending most of their time getting the girls ready for graduation.

They found out with some outside help, Johnny and Dally had faked their deaths when Baker was about to make a move against them. They had been in Texas since then, once they both recovered from their injuries they started helping out on the ranch they were on and had been working it ever since, except now they were co-owners with the man that took them in.

Baker was arraigned and denied bail, his trial was scheduled sometime during the summer.

The doctors concluded Sam indeed had a stroke, how bad they still didn't know. But there was good news; her vitals were showing improvement. "That's good," the doctor told them. "With some comatose patients they don't show improvement and instead they get worse. Her vitals showing improvement is very encouraging." That was nearly a week ago. He looked over at his girlfriend, hoping it was a good thing and she would awake soon; the oxygen mask had been replaced with a nasal mask. She still had tubes and cords hooked up to her, but not as many as when she first came in.

He took her hand in his, looking at her face then at the heart monitor that sped up a little when he took a hold of her hand. He gave a smile at her reaction; he leaned over the rail and kissed her cheek, "I can still make your heart flutter." He tenderly brushed her hair off her face, and said the words he wished he could have said before this, "I love you Samantha Winston." He let out a breath and shook his head, "I wish I hadn't been such a chicken shit and said it to you before. But I do." He smiled down at her, the edges of his vision began to blur, "You're not a easy person to love, Sam. But you went and made me anyway. Your pushy, distant at times, and can be so damn bull-headed I want to shake you sometimes."

His forehead touched hers. "Sam, please don't make me love a dead woman. I don't know if I could let you go if I had to." Before he knew it, the hour was up and the nurse came in to change her IV and the bedding. He whispered he would be back later and got up to leave. He was reaching for the doorknob when he heard her heart rate speed up. He turned around and was greeted with a sight…

* * *

Kate was in the same place she had been for the nearly two weeks. Looking across the room at Dal as she was getting re-dressed. Over the last two weeks they had gotten to know one another again and ended up picking up were they left off. She was sitting in his motel room, feeling like a teenager and a bad tv movie cliché. She was thrilled that the only man she ever loved was back in her life, on the other hand she felt like she was a naughty secret that everyone knew about but didn't discuss.

In two weeks Dal had to go back to Texas and take care of some business on the ranch him and Johnny owned. He didn't mention anything about were they would go after that. She wanted to ask him; but was afraid of the answer. She stood up, fastening her jeans when she felt him wrap his arms around her waist. He kissed her behind the ear; she turned into him, earning a kiss before they broke apart. He let out a sigh, "I guess we need to get back to the hospital." She nodded, "Yeah, we should." They walked out of his room, while he locked up Kate was trying to figure out how to approach his upcoming trip. They started walking the short distance to the hospital, finally she broke the silence.

"Dal? You said you have to go back to the ranch soon to take care of business. Are you going to come back?" He stopped, and looked at her, "What do you mean Kate?" She took a breath and took a hold of her courage, "I mean do you think once Sam is recovering and out of the hospital, do you think that we might have a chance to maybe start over?" He looked at her in stunned silence, he was silent so long, she took his silent as a no. She felt her shoulders, slump, "I guess I have my answer." She let go of his hand and walked away. She was entering the hospital lobby when she heard someone call her name. She looked over her shoulder and saw Dal come running up to her. She stopped and turned around to see him stop in front of her. He took her face in his hands and lifted it up to meet his, his eyes blazing at her. Only instead of them blazing with anger, they blazed with certainty and …love, she realized.

He loved her. She had loved him with everything that made her up and she now realized he had loved her the same. Still did. Why else would he have stayed away to keep her safe. He brought his lips to only a breath away from hers. "I love you, Kate." Her breath caught at his words.

"I want another chance with you. I just didn't know if you wanted another one. I was just afraid you didn't want another shot at us, so I didn't ask. I would love it if you came back to Texas with me."

He closed the distance between their lips with a kiss that was so tender and passionate; it made her ache for him. She closed the remaining distance between them and wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing her curves pressed against his hard muscles. She broke the kiss, laughing and crying at the same time; looking up into his face and those eyes she fell in love with when she was a teenager.

"I love you too, Dally. I love you too." His eyes flickered with so many emotions she couldn't decipher, but when he looked at her steadily with love in his eyes, she had no doubt about his feelings. "I love you, Katherine Miller. With all that's left my cold heart and soul." She laughed and rolled her eyes at those words that he had said to her when they were kids. "Dallas Winston, you're about as cold as the sun is." She smiled at his small grin. She stood up on tiptoe and pulled his head down to hers for a kiss. "I love you too, my street warrior. With all that makes up who I am. I want it all; I want to marry you, love you, and grow old with you. I want everything." She grinned up at him.

"I would say I want your babies but I think I already did that. And got a grandbaby that will have you wrapped around her little pinky in a week's time." He laughed and pulled her to him for another kiss.

They broke up apart at someone shouting their names; Tim came running up to them, excitement clear on his face. "It's Sam. She's awake."

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_Thank you for your reviews and patience through out this story. I have the Epilogue left that I will post tomorrow, if my computer decides to __corporate__. _


	34. Epilogue

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders or other characters that are not mine: they belong to S.E. Hinton and other ff authors respectively._

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Epilogue

_August, six years later_

Jane closed the photo album in her lap and leaned back on the couch and waited for Mikey to get home from school. It had been six years now and a lot of things had changed since then. Mikey was in middle school now and her and Pete would be married three years this August, her petition for Mikey's adoption went through that fall and by Christmas he was Mikey Cade. Six months after her and Pete married, Pete's adoption petition to adopt Mikey was approved and for his anniversary gift for their first anniversary were adoption papers for one Michael 'Mikey' Cade-Curtis.

Dal made peace with his estranged mother and forged a relationship with her that lasted till she died last year. After seeing how little time Dal had with his grandmother, Al let go of his bitterness and anger to Dal and made peace with him, they now talk regularly on the phone and email one another daily.

Richard Baker stood trial for his crimes and was sentenced to life without parole in prison. It wasn't until the evidence her and Ben found against him came to light that others came forward and testified and he was charged with more counts of drug and gun smuggling as well as two counts of murder to go with the attempted murders on her dad and uncle as well as her and Sam.

A knock at the door drew her out of her thoughts; she looked at her watch and smiled, "Come on in, Bri. Door's open," she called out. The door opened and a rounded Bri walked threw it. Bri was due in two weeks with her and Mike's first child. They had decided to wait to see what the baby was when it was born, but both were hoping for a boy. They got married six years ago; right after Sam was released from the hospital.

She grinned at her and held a paper bag in her hand. "Brought the provisions; Ben and Jerry's Karmel Sutra for me and Strawberry Cheesecake for you. And I brought the movies; nothing but hot guys in Spandex." She waddled over to the DVD player and popped the first of three movies in. She sank down with a sigh on the couch and reached for the bag between them, taking out a plastic spoon and pint. She grinned when the opening scene came up and a hunky actor came on. "God I love comic book movies!"

Jane laughed, and then winced. "Don't make me laugh!" She rubbed her large belly, "You woke them up. Now their playing kick ball with my ribs and bladder."

Bri laughed reaching over and giving her large stomach a pat. "How are they doing today?" She shrugged, "Okay, although I have say; being pregnant with twins sucks."

A person could only imagine Jane and Pete's surprise when Jane went to the doctor for what she thought was the flu and was told she was already two months pregnant. It turned out she had conceived on the night of her and Pete's third anniversary. But the even bigger surprise had been when she went back to the doctor and discovered she was carrying twins. With twins on both sides of their family, they figured it was possible.

But both were still surprised when the ultrasound tech pointed out they were indeed having twins. They were having twin boys and were showing signs already of being big like their tall father. Jane's petite frame was all belly and seemed to get bigger by the minute. She had been put on bed rest for the last three weeks and they told her and Pete that as small as she was and was carrying twins they might have to induce her in the next couple of weeks.

She looked down at her watch twenty minutes into the movie, "Mom and Dad's plane should be arriving in the next hour. I hope they beat Pete home." Anyone that knew Johnny and Val knew it was only a matter of time before they got back together, so it was no surprise to anyone when six months ago Val and Johnny decided to renew their vows since their marriage technically was never annulled. It didn't surprise anyone; just that they waited as long as they did; everyone flew in Savannah to attend the ceremony that took place at the old family home that Val recently renovated into both a restaurant and a bed and breakfast that was already a big hit with both locals and travelers.

The next ones to jump the broom was Kate and Dal. Kate had decided to take the opportunity to spread her wings and when she moved to Texas with Dal, she opened another shop in Austin were the ranch was located. The ranch did well and so did the shop. They had already bought their plane tickets and ready to go when the babies came.

Randi and Jesse had married shortly after Randi had the baby; a little baby girl just as she predicted, they named Samantha Jane after her respective aunts; Sol begged them not to name her or any of their kids after her, "One Solange in the family was bad enough. Add two and we're already overfilled the quota for naming your kid a named they hate you for for the rest of their life." she said.

They were expecting a second child soon and hoped for a boy this time. Randi stayed in Tulsa and opened a bakery just as she planned and was now the person for making wedding cakes in town. Socs liked the upscale and creativity of the place while many a Greaser bride loved having a fancy cake that topped her wedding without the heavy price at a high-dollar bakery. She was so popular she was having to hire two more assistants to keep up with the order load.

The next to get married was a complete and total surprise. But then again many were shocked when Brooke Lewis and Curly Shepard got married.

Including Randi.

But Randi was even more surprised when she found out Brooke and Curly had been sweethearts when they were teenagers. They met when Curly was sent to a juvie boot camp not far from her house. They would sneak out and be with each other til they were discovered one night by her mother and was separated, never seeing one another again.

Surprised was the understatement of the year when Randi had her suspicions and secretly had a DNA test done and discovered Ray Deveraux was not her father. Curly was. Randi spent the last six years getting to know the family she never knew existed. She opened her bakery right next door to Curly's diner, later combining the bakery and diner into one building, renaming the Dingo into 'Shepard's Burger and Fry' and named the bakery 'Shepard's Pie'.

Many a cop around town laughed himself stupid that one of Savannah's former finest was related to a family that at one time had a cell on reserve at the local jail.

She was interrupted from her thoughts at the sound of the front door opening and seeing Mikey coming in from the bus. He had grown a lot from the little boy he had been; he towered over her and was showing he was going to fit right in with the tall Curtis men when he reached of age. He had been mistaken for a sophomore in high school already and was still growing.

He also was one of the brightest kids in his class. He smiled at her and handed her the mail, "Hey Ma, how are the twinsters doing today?" She smiled and shrugged, "Their still in there. Callie called and said she was going to be late, track practice took longer than they thought it would." Callie was their seventeen-year-old foster daughter and hopefully this spring, their adoptive daughter. Callie had been a kid lost threw the cracks of the foster system and Jane found her a year into her job as a social worker, she had been with them ever since.

* * *

Jane looked around the room and saw it was dark now; she smiled to herself sheepishly when she realized she dozed off. A snore off to her right said Bri still was. With a grunt and a hand on the back of the couch, she pushed herself up and walked into the kitchen and found a wonderful surprise. Val was standing at the stove with a apron on, stirring a large pot of what smelled like marinara sauce. She cleared her throat and spoke, "Hey, Mom. When did you get in?" She set the spoon down and ran over to her and gave her a big hug, or as big as she could with Jane's belly in the way.

"Your dad and me got in a couple of hours of ago, but you and Bri were still asleep so we left you be. Oh, Callie called; she's going to be over at Sol's house for a couple of hours for an assignment she had to do." Jane nodded and sank down in the kitchen chair with a sigh; it was getting harder and harder to stand to be on her feet longer than a few minutes and wouldn't be surprised if she went before they induced her. The doctor wanted to go ahead at 33 weeks since she had been classified as a high-risk pregnancy with her past history but she convinced him to try and let them come on their own. So far they didn't show any signs of coming early. While she sat at the table, buttering the bread Val sat in front of her, she caught her up on how everyone was doing.

Maddie and Ken were engaged much to Darry's dismay. Kent was still single, much to Cooper's dismay.

Bri informed her earlier that Patti and Naomi were loving college life and was reluctant to come home for upcoming break; she figured it was because of so many cute college boys on campus.

Pete got an email from Wendy the other day and was thrilled to be working for the _New York Times_. She was sharing an apartment with Steve and Meg's oldest girl Julie who was attending Julliard School of Dance.

Her and Pete got a invitation to Candi's graduation from film school the other day. Annie was opening a gallery soon with her art and was looking forward to seeing her nephews.

Val caught her up on how everyone was doing back in Savannah. Al made partner at his firm and Edie's veterinarian clinic was doing well. After a year of phone calls and e-mails, Edie moved out to Savannah to work with a well-known veterinarian, and to be with Al; they moved in together six months later.

They recently found out they were pregnant and were in no rush to get married. Shelby was in first grade now and was telling everyone she was going to be a big sister.

She also told her of a project Brooke was working on with Pony. Last year Pony finally decided to publish a story near and dear to his heart: a story about two boys that were childhood friends running from the law and going into the mountains of Oklahoma, it was titled _The Outsiders_.

Pony and Brooke's publishing houses was working in collaboration on a book they were working on together; a biography about the guys and what happened after the story ended in _The Outsiders_. From the first year after Johnny and Dally died to the guys meeting their wives to meeting Jane and Sam and finally to Johnny and Dally coming back in their lives.

Dinner was over and Val and Johnny were washing and putting up dishes while Jane put the leftovers up. Mike, who came to pick up Bri, ate with them before leaving to get some much needed rest.

Pete sat at the table helping Mikey with his homework. Jane bent and put the Tupperware on a low shelf in the fridge and felt a sharp pain go through her back. She stood back up, massaging the spot. Pete looked up and noticed her rubbing her lower back, "You alright, Jane?" She nodded she had been having a lot of back pain the last couple of days, but figured it was because she was a big as she was. "Yeah, just a sore back, ugh now I know why Randi was always complaining of a sore back when she was pregnant."

Johnny smirked, "Randi was carrying a nearly nine pound baby." Jane stuck her tongue out at him, "Exactly. I'm carrying twins, and both are taking after the Golly Green Giant over there," she gestured to her husband. Laughter rang out in the kitchen while Pete made a face, "Hey why you pickin on my height, my little oopha-lumpa."

She mock-glared at him, "Don't make me hurt you." He laughed and stood up, stretching before walking over to her, "I'm sorry sweetheart," he pecked her on the lips as he wrapped his arms around her. "Want me to make it up by giving you a back rub?" Her eyes lit up at his offer and eagerly nodded, "Yes! My back feels like a giant knot." She took him by the hand and let him up to their room upstairs.

Mikey shook his head at them and went back to his homework, after a few minutes of visibly struggling with a problem, Johnny sat down in the chair Pete vacated and gestured to Mikey's math homework, "Want me to try and help you with this?"

Mikey nodded, "Yeah, Pop if you don't mind. Algebra is kicking my ass." Val made a shocked sound and turned around to glare at her grandson, "Mike! Don't use that kind of language!" he ducked his head sheepishly. "Sorry, Nan." She gave him a long look before turning around and putting glasses back in the cabinet. Johnny grinned and gestured to him to lean in, "At least till your thirteen," he whispered. Mikey threw his head back and laughed loudly at his words. His laugh was cut short with pounding footsteps coming down the stairs, "Johnny! Val! Grab Mikey and call Mom and Dad and everyone! Jane's water just broke!"

* * *

Twelve hours and three epidurals later, Jane gave birth to twin boys weighting in at 8 lbs, 12 oz and twenty-one inches long and 8 lbs, 7 oz and twenty-two inches long respectively. She was exhausted but happy, Pete watched in awe as the nurse handed him the first of his sons and saw Jane smile teary-eyed down at their youngest twin. He looked down at the baby in his arms and smiled at his little yawn, he kissed his wife's head, "You did good, Mommy." She smiled up at him, "So did you, Daddy. I gotta admit, not very many men would let his wife practically crush his hand and not utter a complaint." His hand twitched in memory of his petite wife's iron grip on his hand. He smiled back, "Well I gotta admit not very many women would be in labor for twelve hours and not mutter a word against her husband." She grinned up at him, "Who said I wasn't?" He laughed loudly, jarring the dozing baby in his arms. A knock at the door came and his Dad poked his head in, "Up for some visitors?" He smiled and gestured for him to come in, "Yeah, Dad we're ready." Pony and Wendy were the firsts to come in, followed closely by Johnny and Val. The rest came in and she saw her aunt Kate and Uncle Dal had flown in and rest came in pairs and threes, but the last pair to come in were the ones Jane was looking for first.

Ben came in with a arm wrapped around Sam's waist, her cane made a soft thumping sound as she walked. Everyone parted for the couple and Dal pulled a chair over to the bed for his daughter.

Sam was considered a walking medical miracle, after she woke up from her coma they discovered she had a stroke that paralyzed one side of her body, and her wounded arm was showing only a twenty percent function. They told her she would be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. But the doctors learned something Jane could have already told them: Samantha Winston didn't quit or didn't lie down for no one. A year and a half of constant physical therapy and encouragement from both her family and former precinct families, Sam walked out of the rehab center with a cane and ninety-eight percent function of her arm. Her and Ben celebrated their first wedding anniversary and three years at Darry's company as an architect and contractor.

Sam sat down and propped her cane against the chair and took a hold of Jane's hand, giving it a squeeze, "You did good, Janie. Their easily the best looking guys in the whole room." Fake hurt and laughter went around the room, Jane leaned over and with Pete and Ben's help, she laid the baby in Sam's arms. She cooed at him, ran a finger down the curve of his face. She looked up at the new parents, "Alright, you've kept the names a secret till now; which one am I holding?"

Jane and Pete exchanged a look before they nodded at one another; they had talked about the names for a long time after they found out what they were having. Jane smiled at her son in her sister's arms, "You are currently holding Johnny Cade Curtis."

Johnny looked stunned, then walked to her side and hugged her, he pulled back and smiled big, "I'm honored, guys."

Pete held up the baby he was holding, "And I'm holding Shayne Matthew Curtis. We decided we wanted them to have good strong names." He shrugged, "That's why we chose them." Wendy, Pony, Darry, and Soda looked at them with big smiles and glassy eyes. Wendy felt like she was going to cry and was humbled that her son chose to name his son after her beloved father. She saw her husband and brothers-in-law were feeling the same way.

About thirty minutes later, after being passed around grandparents, their big brother and sister, and everyone else, the nurse came back and told them visiting hours were over and the babies and new parents need their rest. Callie and Mikey kissed Jane and hugged Pete goodbye to go back to their house to stay with Johnny and Val.

Jane slept on and off through the early morning and well into the afternoon and evening. It was just getting dark when she woke again and smiled at the sight that greeted her; Johnny was crying softly in his bassinet next to the bed and a groggy-looking Pete picked him up before he woke his sleeping brother. After a few minutes, he soothed him back to sleep. He looked up from the chair he sat in and smiled at her, he got up slowly and sat down beside her on the bed, handing little Johnny to her when she reached for him. She sat there looking at her son. Her son; after what the doctors told her all those years ago she never thought she would be able to give birth to a child. Now she had two, and two adopted children she loved like her own. She looked up at Pete, who was reaching for little Shayne as he started to cry, "Have I told you how much I love you?" He nodded his head and smiled, "Yeah, but feel free to tell me again, my ego could use a little stroking." She shook her head at him before looking back down at the baby in her arms then at the one in Pete's. When she came to Tulsa six years ago on a quest find her father and possibly maybe herself, she never expected to find another family in the form of her dad's adoptive brothers or meet a man that soon became everything to her. Never was she so glad for that decision as she was now as she looked on her new children and husband.

THE END

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_Thank you for your reviews and patience and for staying with this story through the duration. I'm sorry to see the story end, but glad I had the chance to write it and for you all to get to read it._


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